Time Warp
by Katiemonz
Summary: Sonic and his past-self may have put a stop to Eggman's plans for the Time Eater, but that only made the thing mad. Now the younger Sonic and Tails are trapped in the present, the time stream is falling apart, and this time, two hedgehogs might not be enough to save the day. Only by finding a way to cooperate with Sonics from alternate dimensions can our heroes save the multiverse.
1. Happy Birthday to Me

**Notes: **I had planned not to post this story for another while yet, but I just couldn't resist putting it out there! I've been working on this for quite a while, so I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: All characters belong to SEGA and Archie Comics. The writing itself belongs to me.

Takes place directly after Generations.

* * *

"Sonic... Did we win?"

The twenty-year-old hedgehog huffed in exhaustion. He turned towards his little brother. The fox was staring at the spot where the mysterious monster known as the Time-Eater disappeared. Sonic smiled.

"Yeah, Tails. We won." Another one of Eggman's plots foiled, and the universe was saved. When the strange monster suddenly appeared at his birthday party and abducted all his friends, Sonic wasn't sure what to think. But it had been a pretty fun adventure, running through places he had already been, and hanging out with a past version of himself. Actually, it had been _loads_ of fun! Thrashing the corrupt water god, Chaos, without having to go Super Sonic; snowboarding through the city streets and getting chased by a massive truck; blowing up the Chemical Plant and practically riding on the explosion to grab one of the legendary Chaos Emeralds. Of course, there was that one flaming city that he only had a vague memory of, and that no one else seemed to remember at all, but it didn't bother him much. All that mattered to him was that he saved the day and he had fun doing it.

His younger self and the younger Tails approached them with tired grins on their faces. "You did good out there, lil' me," the elder hedgehog said. He extended his fist, which his double happily fist-bumped.

"Thanks. You weren't too shabby yourself, gramps," the twelve-year-old smirked.

"H-hey! I'm only twenty! Twenty is NOT old!" the taller one protested. His younger incarnation and he two Tailses laughed. Sonic rolled his eyes. "Either way, the Time Eater is gone, the time-space continuum is back to normal, and everyone is safe and sound," he said.

A portal suddenly opened up in front of the group, grabbing everyone's attention. From where they were standing, they could see through to the other side of the trans-dimensional passageway. It seemed to lead to a grassy field with a large tree and a picnic table; the whole area was filled with balloons, streamers, and a banner that read 'Happy Birthday Sonic.'

"That looks like our ride home," the older Tails said. "Just the way we left it."

"Can we go with you, older me?" the smaller fox pleaded. "Pleeeaaassee? Just for a little bit! I love birthday parties!" The older Tails looked to the dark blue hedgehog standing next to him for his opinion. Of course, Sonic gave an enthusiastic nod.

"No prob! _You know what they say- the more the merrier!_" he said in his best impression of Doctor Eggman. The younger Sonic burst out laughing.

"Okay, that was actually pretty good," he said, wiping a tear from his eye. He took a few breaths to regain his composure. "I guess we can stick around for cake. Shouldn't take too long, and besides, the portal to get back to our time hasn't popped up yet."

"Yes, there's that. And..." the green-eyed hedgehog said, leaning down next to his double and putting his arm around the kid's shoulders, "... cake is DELICIOUS," he whispered dramatically. He leapt back to his feet with a huge, goofy grin on his face. "And besides, we just saved all of time and space! We deserve to celebrate!" Tiny Tails grabbed the twenty-year-old's gloved hand and started flying towards the portal.

"What are we waiting for, then! Let's hurry before this thing closes!" he cheered with excitement. The other three quickly followed his lead, and they all jumped through the portal, leaving the empty white limbo behind.

The portal closed up behind them as the four landed on the soft grass. The sun was shining from up above, warming the air and making it feel truly like late June. There was a gentle breeze that blew through the grass, creating ripples in the surrounding hills. It was so different, being back in the real world after being trapped in that bizarre, timeless white expanse. It even smelled different. The air here was rich with the scent of flowers, birthday cake, and...

"My chili dog!" the eldest hedgehog said, noticing the delicious foodstuff falling through the air in front of him. He dove for it, belly-sliding on the grass with his arms stretched out in front of him. As if it were a miracle, the chili dog fell right into his open hands. Sonic sighed with relief and sat back up. He bit off half the dog in one bite, savoring the flavor explosion that hit his taste buds. "Still warm!" he said, mouth still full of chili. He swallowed. "Heh heh! Gotta love time travel." He took another bite out of his favorite food. He stood, facing himself and the Tailses, who were approaching the picnic table. The speedster smiled at what he saw. All of his friends who had been sucked through the Time Eater's portals- Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Shadow, and Rouge, to name a few- were popping back into existence in bright flashes of purple light.

Sonic sauntered over to the others, tossing the rest of the chili dog in his mouth. The culinary confection no sooner hit his tongue then a flash of pink suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision. Before he knew what was happening, he was stumbling to the side, with Amy Rose clenching her arms around his chest.

"Ohmigosh, Sonic, you were so great! You totally saved the day!" she cheered. "My hero..." she snuggled her head underneath Sonic's chin as he desperately tried to pull away.

"Yeah, sure, no problem, Amy," he said, choking out the words. "Now, if you could just stop breaking my spine for a minute, that would be phenomenal!" He managed to wedge his arm in between her face and his and pushed her away as she tried to move in for a kiss. He squirmed as he tried to break free from her iron grip. "Yo, Tails! Would you mind?" he shouted, trying to get his little brother to help him out.

"No, it's okay, I don't mind! You two keep having fun!" Tails called back, waving with a sly grin.

"OH, YOU LITTLE- That's it, you are going straight to bed when we get home, mister!" Sonic cried, still struggling to escape from Amy's love-onslaught. This only made Tails laugh.

"Please," he began explaining to his six-year-old self, "he never actually follows through on that threat. He's too nice when it comes to that kind of stuff." The child was watching the scene unfold while trying not to laugh and choke on his cake. He had never expected his older big brother to be frightened by a girl, especially when he had been saving the world for years.

Next to him, Lil' Sonic grimaced. "Man, Amy's still gonna be obsessed with me in eight years? Girl needs a hobby," he shuddered. He watched as his future self finally managed to get the pink hedgehog off of him. The dark blue Mobian then raced up the tree that was next to the picnic table, poking his head out between the leaves.

"C'mon, Amy, it's my birthday! I just wanna relax! Do we really have to go through this?" he pleaded. Amy walked over to the base of the tree, hands on her hips. She pouted angrily up at him before sighing. "Fine, I'll leave you alone. But ONLY because it's your birthday, Sonic!" she said, winking up at him. His muscles relaxed. He was finally safe. He dropped down from the tree and landed next to a certain chuckling red echidna. He punched Knuckles in the arm.

"Oh, shut up, Knucklehead."

"Can't help it. It doesn't get old," Knuckles shrugged. "Now, birthday boy, you going to eat your cake? Because I will gladly take it from you."

"How you gonna take cake away from someone you can't catch?" Sonic smirked.

"Is that a challenge?"

"You could say that. Another time, though. I mean, it's not very often that you get to spend time with a younger version of yourself, am I right?" the hedgehog grinned, elbowing his rival jokingly.

"Alright, another time. I'm holding you to that, alright?"

"You've got yourself a deal, pal." Sonic slapped Knuckles on the back before snatching up a slice of cake for himself. Chocolate. The hedgehog's favorite kind. He happily dug into the dessert; he didn't realize how hungry he had been until he returned to the 'real world.' Maybe it had something to do with time not progressing normally in the strange white dimension, but even with all the crazy places that he and his younger self had ran through, they had noticed that neither of them were getting the least bit hungry or tired. Although Sonic had simply ignored this strangeness before, he was starting to feel the effects wear off. His hunger had come back with a vengeance, meaning the quickster would probably eat any food put in front of him.

He took a seat on one of the benches back at the picnic table, next to his younger self. He crossed his legs and leaned backward, relaxing. "Been one heck of a day, huh?"

"That sounds like the understatement of the century," the younger Sonic remarked, raising an eyeridge. "I mean, I'm eight years in the future right now, hanging out at my twentieth birthday party. With my twenty-year-old self. I still can't get over that. It's so... weird." The older hedgehog chuckled.

"Man, I've seen so many weird things over the years, stuff like this doesn't particularly phase me anymore," he smiled. The younger Sonic simply shook his head.

"What the heck was so weird that _this_ seems normal to you? Actually- you know what, I don't even want to know."

"Good, because I wasn't gonna tell you. You're going to have to find that out on your own, kid."

"What is this, I can't tell you, or else I'll have to kill you? Afraid of causing a time paradox or something?"

"Nah. You just need to have some surprises in life, after all!" He patted the smaller hedgehog on the head.

"I'm getting a pat on the head. From myself. There is something inherently wrong with this picture," was the small hedgehog's only response.

"Yeah, well, you're going home soon, anyway, so why not just chill out? We've time traveled before, this shouldn't be COMPLETELY new to you. Remember Little Planet? That's happened to you by now, right?"

"Well, YEAH, but- but that didn't involve more than one Sonic at any given time!"

"What about Metal?"

"He's a robot, he doesn't count," the child pouted. He paused for a moment. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Hm?" the twenty-year-old said, his mouth full of cake. "Yeah, shoot," he mumbled. He licked the icing off his lips.

"Well... Do you think Robotnik is ever going to give up? Or will we just... put him out of commission one of these days? I mean, whenever he's defeated, I always feel like that's the end of that. He couldn't possibly consider trying something again, especially when sometimes it seems like he's gone for good. I'm going to be fighting Robuttnik for at least eight more years, for Pete's sake. I know you said we win every time, but will we ever... win?"

The older hedgehog stopped shoveling cake into his mouth and rested his plate on his knees. He stared off into the distance, thinking. He supposed he had never though of the war being over. It was always just find Eggman, get the Chaos Emeralds, foil whatever evil scheme he's come up with, rinse, repeat. He'd been doing it for so long, it had become some sort of routine for the speedster. To be honest, the thought of not having anyone to save the planet from anymore troubled Sonic a little bit. He was all for peace and all, but he wasn't the kind of guy who could just retire from the hero business and settle down. He shuddered slightly. He detested the thought of settling down.

He sighed. "I'm not sure, kiddo. I mean, yeah, it would be great if the world was safe once and for all, but at this point I think it would just be weird NOT having the Doc around to attempt to take over the world every now and then. And, to be perfectly honest, I think that if Eggman ever goes down for good, there'll be someone else to take his place as the resident threat to Mobius."

"So, what, I'm just going to be saving the world for the rest of my life?" the young hedgehog said disappointedly. Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not saying that. But trust me, it'll get easier. You'll have help in the future. Eventually, it'll get to the point where you enjoy trashing badniks every once in a while," he said. The dark-eyed one sighed.

"If it were anyone else saying that, I wouldn't believe a word of it." A small smile crept across his face. "In fact, I can barely believe it when YOU say it. And you're ME." His older self laughed at that. All of a sudden, they were both attacked by a small ball of orange-yellow fluff who had dove onto their laps. The older Sonic barely had time to get his cake out of the way of the excited toddler.

"Sonic! There's a PIÑATA! I didn't know there was a piñata here!" Tiny Tails ecstatically informed his big brother. He turned to the green-eyed hedgehog. "Older big bro, did you know there was a piñata here?"

"What? No way! Hey, you wanna take a whack at it? I'll give you the first try," Sonic said, lifting the child up off of his lap and letting Tails sit on his shoulders. He made extra sure that he wouldn't be poking the tyke with his extra sharp quills as Tails bounced up and down excitedly.

"Alright!" the fox kit cheered, pumping a fist into the air. Sonic paraded around the party with the young child sitting atop his shoulders, with the younger of the hedgehogs in tow. He was following along less for the piñata, and more to make sure that Tails didn't fall off of the taller hog's back and hurt himself.

Sonic passed by his own fourteen-year-old brother. "Why can't you be this cute anymore?" Sonic asked him.

The older Tails smiled. "Well, for one, I can't exactly fit up on your shoulders anymore. Not without getting myself torn to shreds by your quills, anyway."

"Excuses, excuses!" Sonic said with a laugh. "Well, if you can't be my adorable baby bro, I guess I'll just have to keep this little guy!" he said, reaching behind his head and giving the young kit on his back a tickle. The child squirmed as he laughed, making the younger Sonic nervous.

"Cut it out, or else he'll end up cutting himself on those razor blades on your back," he said, in a tone that was both serious and joking at the same time.

Suddenly, he heard a loud WHOOSHing sound come from behind them. The smaller hedgehog instinctively whipped his head around to see what was happening.

A portal had opened up about 100 yards away. Through its deep purple haze, the hedgehog was able to make out the landscape of Green Hill Zone. Home.

The twenty-year-old hedgehog gently lifted Tiny Tails off of his shoulders and placed him down on the ground. "Well, looks like I won't get to keep you after all. Bummer," he said.

"It's okay, you'll still have older-me to play with!" the small fox kit said, wrapping his arms around the green-eyed hedgehog's legs. "Right, older-me?" he said, looking up at his future-self. The older fox nodded. "You bet," he said, giving his other self a high-five. Sonic- both of them- smiled at their little brothers.

"Still, it's been cool hanging out with you two. We'll have to do it again sometime," said the older hedgehog with a smile and a thumbs up.

"Yeah, if time and space starts to get ripped apart again, I'll be sure to give you a call," his younger incarnation said.

"Promise?" the elder Sonic said in an attempt to be purposely annoying. The younger rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, sure, promise," he said with a laugh. He received a friendly noogie from his double, as well as a fistbump from the older Tails.

Given that the Sonics and the Tailses were just different versions of one another, their goodbyes didn't take long. It was the goodbyes of everyone ELSE at the party which took a while. It was like they were never going to see Sonic or Tails again. After the two time-travelers had said goodbye to everyone, the preteen gathered his little brother up and the two prepared to go through the portal. Speaking of which, did the portal seem... smaller?

"Wha-? It's closing! Go, go!" the light blue hedgehog said, running towards the rapidly closing portal with Tails close behind. They had wasted too much time on goodbyes. The gateway was getting smaller and smaller, shrinking exponentially with every step Sonic took towards it. It nearly felt as if he were running in slow motion, the portal closing faster and faster. _'C'mon, go go go!'_ the young hedgehog thought. _'We've got to get through!'_

By the time he had reached it, the portal was barely big enough for him to stick his head through. Not willing to risk his head getting stuck, he shoved his arm through the portal instead, hoping to somehow pull himself through.

The portal closed up around his wrist, and surely would have sliced his hand clean off if his older self hadn't run over to pull him out in time. The two hedgehogs fell backwards, the younger landing on top of the older. Mini-Tails stared at the place where the portal once was.

"Sonic... It's gone," he said, his voice barely louder than a whimper. The small speedster scrambled to his feet and frantically inspected the empty air in front of him.

"It can't be gone! That portal was our only way back home! It can't just be GONE!" he shouted, feeling around for any trace of the dimensional gateway, as if it had simply turned invisible. He fumbled about in the empty air, finding nothing. He quickly lost hope after only thirty seconds. His arms fell to his sides, shoulders slumped. "It's gone," he admitted after what had felt like an eternity.

He felt a firm grip on his shoulder. He looked up to see his older self looking down at him, with a concerned and serious look on his face. The fact that the older hedgehog had done nothing but smile since they met only made this change in attitude more worrisome.

"It'll be alright," Macro-Sonic said calmly. "You guys can stay with me and Tails until we find a way to get you back home again. Okay?"

"It's not like we have much of a choice at this point," the newly stranded hedgehog said quietly, looking down at his shoes. Tiny Tails wormed himself into his big brother's arms, scared now that they suddenly had no way of returning home. The younger Sonic held his best friend tight in his arms, looking back up at his future-self again.

"Thanks, Sonic," he said. The older hedgehog smiled.

"Don't mention it, Sonic," he replied.

* * *

**Notes:** So that was chapter one! This is the first story I've posted anywhere, so I hope you like it so far. I plan to update this story once a week, so stay tuned! I would love if you would leave me a review to let me know what you think.


	2. Alien Hunting

**Notes:** Hey guys! Thanks for the fav's and reviews and follows I got for chapter one, I really appreciate it! Here's chapter two. I had a really fun time writing this one, so hopefully it's fun to read! How will our young heroes react to being trapped in the future? LET'S FIND OUT!

* * *

Chapter 2

The party ended soon after, and everyone wished the younger Sonic and Tails luck and headed off in their own separate directions. It was going to be getting dark soon, so it was time for the four heroes to get going anyway. The workshop where Sonic and Tails lived wasn't far from where they decided to have Sonic's birthday party- just on the other side of the Mystic Ruins. It wasn't a very long walk, or a chatty one at that. The "classic" versions of Mobius' dynamic duo were busy individually contemplating their fates; wondering how they would get back home, and picturing where their future selves would live. Meanwhile, the older fox and hedgehog were trying to communicate using nothing but facial expressions, discussing what they were going to do with the two kids they were suddenly left with. Their conversation didn't make much headway, which tends to be what happens with silent conversations.

Soon, the Mystic Ruins train station terminal, a wooden building several stories high, was in view. "We're almost there," the older of the two Sonics said, breaking the silence. His younger self merely nodded in response, not saying a word. The green-eyed hedgehog pouted. He hated to see a friend upset, especially when that friend was himself.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. "Yo, little me, wanna race to the workshop?" he said, bouncing on his feet with excitement as he walked. He barely gave the twelve-year-old any time to respond before he shouted, "Great! Ready, set, GO!" He took off in the direction of the train station, leaving a cloud of dirt and dust in his wake. His younger self hesitated for a split second, his brain processing what was going on. That didn't take long, however, and he was soon running after the older hedgehog with only a vague idea of where the finish line was.

His feet pounded against the ground of the somehow familiar Mystic Ruins. Jumping high over rocks and swerving hard around trees, it only took him a few seconds before he was closing in on his future self. The other hedgehog noticed that he was quickly losing his head-start advantage, and he picked up the pace. He didn't go full speed- just fast enough to challenge his younger self.

_'No way I'm going to lose to myself,'_ the preteen thought, his competitiveness starting to show. He slowed down for a half a second and revved himself up into a spin dash, hurdling ahead. He jumped out of his spin and continued running once he began to slow. He glanced left and right and noticed that the older hedgehog was actually behind him. He grinned. _'What now, Mr. Fastest Thing Alive?'_ he thought.

The next thing he knew, something whooshed past him at incredible speeds. The air displacement caused by the sudden passing was nearly enough to knock the young hedgehog sideways into the dirt. "Was that...!" He looked behind him. His older self was no longer there. Instead, he was far ahead of the youngster, running backwards with his tongue out. Mini-Sonic scowled. "SHOWOFF!" he shouted, although he doubted that his older self would be able to hear him. To his surprise, the other hedgehog winked in response before turning himself around again so that he was running forward. Determined not to throw in the towel, the younger pulled himself into a Super Peelout- his feet looked like nothing more that a blurry, red figure-eight, and he was barely touching the ground. He sped ahead, the maneuver allowing him to catch up with his future self with ease.

"Not too shabby!" the older hedgehog shouted over the wind rushing past them. "I almost forgot about the Super Peelout!"

"Is this all you've got?" the younger yelled back. His other self grinned.

"Not even close, pal!" he said. "What about you? Getting tired?"

"In your dreams! I could do this all day!"

"Well good, because so can I! Now, let's see who can- WHOA WHOA WAIT HOLD ON STOP STOP STOP STOP WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE!" the older hedgehog yelped, screeching to a halt right at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the workshop. Mini-Sonic skidded to a stop about ten feet away. He was panting.

"Jeez, you trying to give me a heart attack or something? Thanks for the heads-up there," he said snarkily.

"Hah, I didn't think we'd get here this quick," the older Sonic said, bouncing on the balls of his feet to help cool down his legs. "Whew! That was fun!"

"Yeah, I guess it was," the twelve-year-old said with a smile.

"Aha! I knew a good run would be all it takes to cheer you up." His older persona gave him a pat on the back before starting up the stairs. "Come on, I might as well show you the outside of the place while we wait for Tails and Tails to catch up." Nodding, Mini-Sonic followed him up the stairs, intrigued.

The young hedgehog had never even considered having a house before. Well, he had thought about it, of course. It just never seemed like something that was within his grasp. Even if he was forced to grow up quickly, having lived on his own for almost his whole life, he never seriously thought about having a permanent place to stay. Once he took in Tails and started to look after him, the idea crossed his mind more and more often. However, due to his lack of funding and his young age, he was never really able to act on the notion. He honestly had no idea what to expect, walking up those stone steps.

They reached the top of the first flight of steps, coming to a plateau. The area was pretty empty, save for fencing around the edge of the cliff and another set of stairs, leading up to the workshop. From here, it was easier to see the house. From his vantage point, the twelve-year-old observed that the building looked small, and from the outside indeed seemed more like a place to work than a place to live. He and his older self ascended the next flight of stairs, approaching the building.

It was about two stories high, and made out of various materials- brick, steel, wood, and cinderblocks, to name a few. There was a small pool of water with a water wheel around the side, and a small tower protruding from the top of the roof. It wasn't a particularly big house, but then again, with only two people living there, it didn't need to be. There was a large stretch of land by the right side of the house that jutted out across the ocean. Palm trees lined this peninsula at even intervals, and there seemed to be a metal rail running down the center of it.

All in all, it was more of a house than Sonic had ever had before in his life.

The older Sonic bent down and picked something up off of the ground. It seemed to be a stone totem, or maybe some sort of key. "Man, I wish kids would just leave this thing where it belonged," he said. "I'll have to bring this back to WindyValley later, or else that wind tunnel's not going to open." He sat down on the front steps, placing the key on the ground next to him. He flashed a smile at his past self. "Nice place, eh?"

"I've never had an actual place of my own before," the smaller hedgehog said. "My brain is still in a bit of a shock."

"Well, it's not technically MY place. It is Tails' workshop, after all, and he brings in most of the income. But I do live here," the older Sonic said. "Hey, speaking of Tails, here they come!" He stood up and waved to the two approaching foxes. The two of them flew up to the top of the plateau and came in for a landing a few feet away from where the Sonics were standing.

"So, who won?" The older of the two foxes asked while the younger stared up in awe at the workshop.

"I actually think it was a tie," answered Sonic with a grin. He pulled a small house key out of his quills and twirled it around his finger. He inserted the key into the doorknob, turned, and bumped the front door open with his hip. "And now, Mini-Me and Lil' Tails, welcome to our humble abode."

"Humble?" If the smaller Sonic's brain was in shock after seeing the outside of the house, then his mind might have been fried a little once he saw the inside. The workshop seemed way bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. They entered into a comfortable living room, with a patched-up couch placed up against one wall, two armchairs against another, and a flat-screen TV hanging above the fireplace on the other side of the room. The cabinets on either side of the fireplace were stocked with video game consoles and games, DVDs and old videos, CDs, and even some vinyl records. There were speakers attached to the walls of the living room, providing full surround sound. There was a loft, allowing people on the second floor to look down into the living room, and giving the whole area an open feel. From the living room they could see the kitchen, which had a circular table with chairs, plenty of windows, and a fairly generic kitchen setup.

And all that could be seen from only one room of the house. Mini-Sonic had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he hadn't even seen the rest of it yet.

"Whoa... this place is insane!"

"Pretty cool, huh?" the green-eyed hedgehog said. "Why don't you and Lil' T go explore, take a look around, make yourselves at home, while Tails and I work on setting up a place for you two to sleep?"

"Lil' T?" the younger Tails asked, turning away from the stereo that he had been fascinated by to face the elder Sonic.

"Well, I've gotta call you something, don't I? I can't just call you Tiny Tails, or the younger Tails, or something equally long the whole time you're here. That would get annoying, don't you think?"

"Haha, yeah," the fox kit giggled.

"Cool! Tails and I will be upstairs if you guys need us," Sonic said, rubbing the child's head and getting his fur all messy.

"Oh, and if you go into the hangar out back or the basement, be careful, okay?" the teenage fox added. "I know you two can handle yourselves, but there's a lot of stuff in there that you shouldn't be touching."

"Got it," Little Sonic said with a thumbs up. Meanwhile, in his head, he was thinking, _'There's a HANGAR in this place, too?! This is seeming more and more like a mansion and less than a workshop every minute.'_

"C'mon, Sonic! Let's go check this place out! I wanna 'splore!" the six-year-old said, grabbing his big brother by the hand and dragging him towards the kitchen. The young hedgehog followed without hesitation, eager to see the rest of the workshop. The older incarnations of the two simply smiled at one another and went upstairs to figure out how they were going to provide sleeping arrangements for two more people.

* * *

Downstairs in the kitchen, those two people in question were busy scrounging for snacks. Sonic yanked open the fridge door, and after looking around for a moment or two, pulled out a can of Chaos Cola. He shut the door with his foot as he popped the top open. "I can't believe this is going to be our house someday," he said after taking a sip of the soda.

"Yeah! It's so cool!" Tails said, flying around the room. He insisted on looking in every cabinet and drawer, just to see what was inside. "I know we move around a lot and all, but I still think it would be cool to have a place to come back to every once in a while. Just to rest and play and stuff."

"I wouldn't mind that either, pal," Sonic said with a frown. "Unfortunately, I'm still too young; who would sell their house to a twelve-year-old, anyway? Even if I AM a 'national hero' or whatever." He put air-quotes around _national hero._ He sighed. "Not to mention, I don't have the cash. Getting a good place to live costs a lot of money. When we get home, though, I'll see what we can do. Deal?"

"Deal!" the fox kit cheered. Sonic took another sip of his soda. _'If we get home at all, that is...'_ he thought. He shook his head. No, he shouldn't be thinking that way. He was going to get his little brother home safe and sound, or his name wasn't Sonic the Hedgehog. He drank the rest of his soda in one gulp and set the empty can on the counter.

"Come on kiddo, I know you wanna check out the hangar," he said, motioning for Tails to follow him. The flying fox nodded eagerly and flew ahead of his brother, barreling through the door that led to the hangar.

The hangar wasn't too big, but there was still enough room for several planes- one of which Sonic and Tails easily recognized as their own bi-plane, the Tornado, although it appeared to have had several upgrades and a slightly updated paint job. Also in the hangar was a worktable with tools scattered about, and an area for spare parts to be stored. There were various diagrams plastered across the walls; some were diagrams of different planes and engines, others were maps, others showed cross-sections of cockpits and control panels. Sonic peeked out the window of the garage door to find that it lead out to the peninsula that jut out over the ocean. _'That must be some sort of runway, then,'_ he thought.

"Wooooooow!" Tails gasped, racing around the room to get a look at everything. "This place is so cool!"

"Way past," the hedgehog breathed. He walked over to the Tornado and rubbed his gloved hand across its metallic body. "Man, this thing looks like it's still new. Good to know it's been taken care of."

"Sonic! Older-me said not to touch anything!" said Tails, pouting and crossing his arms at his older brother.

"I think he just meant the tools and the controls for the planes and stuff," Sonic explained. "And besides, this plane was technically ours first!" he said with a wink.

"Haha, yeah," Tails agreed. "Why do you think future-us need so many airplanes, anyways?"

"That's a good question, Tails. I don't know." Sonic looked around at all the planes in the hangar. There were three in all, but there was space for a fourth as well. "Maybe they all do different things? Or maybe the future-you has a hobby. We'll have to ask later." He took a step back from the Tornado and grinned. "Hey, what do you say you and me go check out those video games we saw in the living room?"

"Ooohhhhh," the fox said, his face lighting up. "Do you think future-us have Super Mega Blasteroids 9? I love that game!" Sonic shrugged.

"Not sure. I like that game too, but I guess it's technically over eight years older now. Let's go check and see!" The two kids excitedly raced back to the living room and opened up the cabinet next to the fireplace. The shelves were lined with video games, which the two time-travelers gaped at in awe; loads of strange-looking consoles, controllers with tons of buttons, and plenty of sequels to games they had never even heard of before piqued their interests. Sonic looked at the game cases, reading about the games on the back and looking at the pictures.

"Please, this isn't even a picture of actual gameplay. It's just a photo of some dude in the forest with a sword," he said, looking at the back of a game called Skyrim.

"Sonic! I found it! It's here!" Tails cheered. Sonic looked up to find him clutching the cartridge of Super Mega Blasteroids 9 in his hands. The hedgehog's eyes lit up, and he immediately put away the game he was holding.

"Awesome! Now, where's that console..." he said, his eyes quickly scanning the shelves for the correct console. "I just saw it here a minute ago, where is it- aha!" He pulled the old gaming device off of the bottom shelf and blew the dust off of it. It apparently hadn't been moved in a while. He handed it over to Tails, who was better with cords and electronics than he was. He figured out where all the cords plugged into relatively easily. Sonic then blew into the cartridge to get the dust out (force of habit), inserted it into the console, and pressed the power button.

The game came to life on the big screen TV, with its catchy opening title song theme blasting through the speakers. Each of the players picked up a controller and grinned.

"Ready to blast some robots?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded.

"Let's do it to it!" he cheered. The game commenced.

Meanwhile, upstairs in Tails' bedroom, the older versions of Sonic and Tails were busy reconstructing Tails' old bunk bed. Ever since the fox took the storage room on the second floor and converted it into a separate bedroom for Sonic, he had removed the bottom bed, replacing it with a desk that fit snugly under the top bunk. They both figured that their younger incarnations could take the bunk bed in Tails' room, and Tails could take Sonic's bed, seeing as the hedgehog usually ended up sleeping on the roof anyways.

"Sonic, could you hand me that socket wrench?" Tails asked, holding out his hand. Sonic dug through the toolbox lying on the floor next to him, managed to find the wrench, and dropped it into his brother's outstretched hand. The hedgehog picked up the instructions for putting the bed together and squinted at them, trying to make sense of the diagrams. He turned it on his side, trying to see if holding it at a 90 degree angle made it make any more sense. It didn't.

"Jeez, how is anyone supposed to figure this stuff out?" he said in frustration. He was now holding the instructions upside down. They still made no sense to him. "It's like its written in gibberish or something!"

"Are you looking at the side that's in French?" Tails asked, without looking up from the bed. Sonic studied the directions further before turning it around to the backside.

"Not anymore," he said with a pout. He crossed his legs and leaned back, his hands on the floor behind him to make sure he didn't fall over. "Sooo. You need me to help with that, or..."

"Actually, I think I'm almost done. Just gotta tighten some stuff up, make sure everything's safe, and we're ready for business," Tails said. Sonic nodded.

"Cool. You got that done pretty quick. Then again, that's not all that surprising, seeing as you're our resident Mr. Geniuspants."

"Please. Nine times out of ten, whenever I have to put a piece of furniture together, I always end up with, like, seventy-thousand extra screws, and it wobbles like you wouldn't believe. I am seriously not kidding, I have had to personally doctor almost all of the furniture in this house so that it's not horribly unsafe," Tails said with a laugh. "This one only went together easy because it's been assembled before."

"Leave it to discount furniture to put a kid like you to shame," Sonic chuckled. "Oh man, I just had the funniest thought. Just picture Eggman, struggling to put together a coffee table or something. That would be hilarious."

Tails snickered. "You're right, that would be pretty funny." He placed his wrench down on the ground next to him and exhaled. "There, that should do it. Do you want to do the honors?"

"Don't have to ask me twice!" Sonic said, standing up. The two of them lifted up the spare mattress off of the ground and slowly lowered it onto the bed. Tails stepped away from the bed and grinned. "It's all yours," he said, motioning towards the newly completed and (hopefully!) functional bed.

Sonic took a step backward and cracked his neck. He smiled. "Geronimo!" he shouted, taking a running leap towards the bed. He landed belly-first on the mattress, causing him to bounce about a foot in the air and making the bed shake. It did not, however, fall over on top of the hedgehog, which was a definite good sign. He gave Tails a thumbs up. "I'd say this thing checks out."

"Cool," the fox nodded. "Now, since I did most of the actual WORK, you can make the bed. There should be some extra sheets in the closet." Sonic groaned.

"Aaawww, come on! Do I have to?" he protested.

"One," Tails started to count in an almost threatening tone- like a parent when their child disobeys them. Sonic got up off the bed and sighed.

"Not gonna work this time, Tails," he said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Twoooo," the fox said, drawing the word out for emphasis.

"Fine, fine, you win." Sonic raised his hands up in the air, admitting defeat. He slumped out of the bedroom to go get sheets and an extra pillow from the hall closet. "How does that work?" he muttered to himself, digging through the closet's contents. Tails smirked. His older brother could be a huge pushover sometimes.

"I'll be downstairs, checking on the littles," the vulpine said, leaving his bedroom and going downstairs. Sonic grunted in response.

Tails got to the bottom of the stairs and walked into the living room. Their backs to him, the younger versions of himself and Sonic were sitting cross-legged on the floor, pounding away on video game controllers.

"Tails, get that power-up!" Sonic said, holding his controller up sideways near his face. He was mashing on the B button, his on-screen space ship shooting out a constant stream of pixilated laser blasts.

"Got it!" the young fox next to him shouted, swerving his space ship to the left to pick up a weapon upgrade. On-screen, the two ships were destroying aliens and asteroids left and right. It was quite the sight to behold.

"Oh man, is that Super Mega Blasteroids 9? It's been forever since I've played that one," the older Tails said, walking up behind them. He sat down on the couch to watch their game. They were already on Level 8.

"Oh, hey," the lighter-blue hedgehog said, not looking away from the TV. "How go things upstairs?"

"We're all done. We set up the old bunk bed for you two, so you can just crash upstairs until we can get you back to your own time."

"Awesome! Bro, watch out for that asteroid!" Sonic said, helping blast apart a huge space rock. "By the way, I call top bunk."

"Ugh, fine," little Tails pouted. He was too preoccupied with the game to fight. "Ooh! Shield! Get it get it get it!"

They continued playing like this for several more minutes, the two of them shouting over the volume of the game, until they reached the Level 10 Boss fight. It was pretty menacing looking, considering the age of the game and the limitations of the graphics at the time. A giant space monsters with three eyes, lots of teeth, and tentacles that tried to whip your ship and do damage. It also shot lasers from its eyes and mouth on occasion. All in all, it was a tough boss.

"Aw man, this guy again!" Sonic cried. He brought his controller close to his chest and glared at the screen, completely focused. "C'mon, Tails, we got him this time. We're going to beat this guy's sorry tentacle butt!" The six-year-old fox nodded, not saying a word. They were both in the zone, and they had a good chance at winning the fight- both had managed to grab some power-ups before the Boss Battle started, and neither started off the fight with low health. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.

"Dude, you've gotta aim for the eyes! Aim for the eyes!"

"I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain!"

"Oh man oh man oh man I'm running low on health and I'm starting to run out of repair kits. We aren't doing as well as I'd hoped- YES WE GOT ONE OF HIS EYES, WAY TO GO BRO!"

The older Tails was watching from his seat on the sofa with amusement. He and _his_ Sonic had never been able to get past this particular boss when they were little, which caused them to put down the game until the hedgehog was around fifteen and better understood video game strategy. At that point, the fight was a piece of cake. They had even discovered a glitch in the game which let players damage the monster before the fight began, making the battle even easier. But of course, Tails couldn't just tell this to the two time-travelling kids. That wouldn't be any fun at all. They would just have to find out the trick for themselves.

"Sonic, I'm taking damage!"

"No! We're so close! Go for the eye on the right, it's the weakest! I managed to hit that one a bunch earlier. No, no, nonononnonononono oh no! Tails I died! How could I die, we were so close!"

"Noo! Without the two of us this is going to be impossib- I GOT THE SECOND EYE, YES YES YES!"

"Holy crap, keep going, Tails! You can do it, kiddo! You can do it! You've got this in the bag! Only one eye left to shoot out and he's gone!"

It was all up to Lil' T at that point. He stared intently at the screen, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. His fingers danced nimbly around the controller, mashing buttons left and right. He narrowly dodged lasers and meteors, all while at dangerously low health.

_'They're not going to be able to do it,'_ the older Tails thought. _'After all, they're just the past versions of Sonic and I, and we only just beat this level a few years ago.'_

Another massive laser blast shot out of the boss' eye and flew across the screen. This one nailed the fox's ship, hitting it dead-on.

"NOOOOO," Sonic shouted in disdain, curling up into a ball. The older fox exhaled and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. He knew it was just too good to be true.

But... something was off. The game-over music wasn't playing yet.

In everyone's astonishment, the space ship had somehow survived the blast, with only 1 hit point remaining. Everyone cheered in extreme excitement, not able to believe that Lil' T had actually survived. The kid took a moment to realize this, and almost crashed into a stray asteroid because of it. Luckily, he recovered from his initial shock just in time to swerve out of the way. The three people in the room quickly went from loud and rambunctious to dead silent, the only noises coming from the television and Lil' T's mad button-mashing skills. The kid needed to concentrate. He was playing on the defensive now; he had gotten lucky by surviving, and he was determined not to get hit again. He steered clear of any meteors, laser blasts, and tentacle whips that were coming his way, sticking mainly to flying in the bottom-left corner of the screen. He snuck in a shot whenever he could, being careful not to fly directly in front of the boss' eye to avoid more energy blasts.

Everyone was holding their breath. After a barrage of laser-fire, Tails spotted his opening. With one final shot of his laser cannons, the small fox hit the space monster's final eye right in the pupil. It exploded in a burst of red and yellow, causing the boss to roar. Its mouth was wide open. Not wasting his chance, Tails unleashed everything he had into the belly of the beast. After devouring ten or so photon torpedoes, the monster couldn't take any more. It coughed up a large cloud of smoke before exploding. It left a purple gem in its wake, which was automatically collected.

Sonic jumped up into the air and cheered. "Holy sweet mother of Chaos! Tails, that was flipping AWESOME! I can't believe you did it!" He lifted his little brother up in the air and spun him around while laughing. The young fox was smiling so big, it looked like his face was going to break. "Yeah, I did it!" he exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.

On the sidelines, the older Tails clapped in congratulations. However, he had a slightly more pressing, yet related matter on his mind.

_'How were they able to beat that boss? They're _us_. We weren't able to do it until we five years OLDER than they are now. This doesn't make any sense! Our past is their future- our timelines should match up.'_ He sighed and looked back at the two kids. His younger self was taking a flying victory-lap around the room, while Lil' Sonic was doing a touchdown dance and making up his own funky dance beat to go with it. Tails shook his head. _'I'm probably over-thinking things. I mean, it's just a level in a video game. It's not that big a deal if they beat it before they're supposed to, right? If anything, I'll talk to Sonic about it later.'_

Speak of the devil, the dark blue hedgehog sauntered down the stairs right at that second. "Hey, what's going on in here?" he asked, taking note of the celebration.

"Dude, you totally missed it! Tails took out the Level 10 boss of Super Mega Blasteroids 9 and it was fracking _sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet_!" his younger self shouted with a huge smile on his face. The green-eyed hedgehog laughed.

"No foolin'? Way to go, kiddo!" he said, giving the small flying fox a double high-five. "I didn't even know we still HAD this game. I haven't played it in years!"

"Yeah, well you'll have to wait your turn old man, Tails and I are on a roll!" The smaller Sonic stuck his tongue out and picked up his controller again, getting ready to continue playing. His little brother was quick to join him, and the two quickly resumed destroying the terrors of outer space (after using a cheat code they had memorized to grab some extra lives, of course).

"I told you, I'm not old," Sonic muttered, folding his arms. He plopped himself down on the couch next to Tails, resting his feet on the coffee table. "Man, I'm beat. Whaddaya say we just order take-out tonight?"

"Are you sure? I mean, it's your birthday. I could probably whip something up real quick for dinner," Tails offered, standing up.

"No, no, no, it's fine, man! Sit back down. I already had cake and chili dogs today, that's all the birthday grub I need. Let's order from that new Holoskan place that just opened up in Station Square, sound good?" he said, motioning for Tails to sit back down as he reached for the cordless phone on the end table next to the sofa. "Yo, guys! Holoskan sound good for dinner?"

"Dunno. Never had it," Sonic's younger self replied, refusing to peel his eyes away from the TV screen.

"It's good. You'll like it. Trust me on this," the elder hedgehog said with a wink. "Tails? Lil' T? Thoughts?"

"Sure, why not?" the little fox replied after taking out a wave of alien ships.

His future-self nodded. "I'm up for it," he said.

"Cool. Be right back," the older Sonic said. He got up to go to the kitchen to search for the menu he had picked up from the restaurant a few days before. It took him a few minutes to remember where he put it. It took significantly longer to get down what everyone wanted- mainly because the two kids were still intensely focused on their game. Even placing the order itself took longer than it should have, seeing how Sonic had to convince the restaurant owner to send a guy out to the Mystic Ruins to deliver the food. He almost didn't until he realized it was Sonic the Hedgehog he was talking to. Sonic normally hated using his hero-status to receive special treatment, but he wasn't in the mood to take the train all the way to the city. The events that transpired in the empty white dimension where he had fought the Time Eater were catching up to him, and he suddenly felt as if he hadn't slept in days (which, for all he knew, very well could have been the case).

Because of all of this, the food didn't arrive until around 8 p.m., and all of the inhabitants of the workshop were starving by then. They didn't even bother to move to the kitchen to eat; the four of them were content enough to sit on the floor in the living room around the coffee table, stuffing their faces with take-out while watching a re-run of some old family game show on TV. As the younger incarnation of Sonic looked around at the cozy setting, he couldn't help but grin. _'Maybe being stuck here won't be so bad, after all.'_

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**Notes:** So ends another chapter. Stay tuned for next week's! The story's going to take a short break from Sonic & co. and focus on one of the two other main characters who haven't been introduced yet. By the way, today's my seventeenth birthday, so if you'd like to leave me a review as a birthday present... wink wink nudge nudge say no more say no more. ;) Also, brownie points to anyone who can figure out what Super Mega Blasteroids 9 is a reference to! See you guys next week!


	3. Space Oddity

**Notes:** Hi again! Thanks for the positive feedback I've been getting, guys! As promised, this chapter will focus less on Sonic, and more on a new character. (For clarification: the new guy isn't mine, he's from the Archie comics. Jsyk.) Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3

Meanwhile, another, different blue hedgehog was looking in on the same exact scene. However, he was not comforted by watching the Sonics and the Tailses eat dinner together. As a matter of fact, he was stressing out.

Zonic the Zone Cop was a resident of the No Zone- an alternate dimension that existed 90 degrees from everywhere else. It was his job to keep a close eye on as many Sonics in as many alternate dimensions as he could to make sure nothing was going majorly wrong in the grand cosmic scheme of things.

And Sonic Prime eating a meal with his past self fell into the 'majorly wrong' category.

Of course, there were thousands upon thousands of other Sonics in the multiverse; heck, Zonic was one of them. There was an inherent difference, though, in meeting yourself from another dimension and meeting yourself from a different point on your timeline. For example, Sonic and Zonic had teamed up a number of times in the past to save various universes from destruction. There was even a whole fiasco around a year ago involving the Sonic from the Anti-Mobius trying to conquer Mobius Prime. Needless to say, the Zone Cop had seen some pretty weird things when it came to watching every Sonic in existence. But two Sonics from the same timeline was unheard of.

He had noticed the two Sonics about a half hour ago, and thought nothing of it. He simply chalked it up to illegal Zone-hopping, and instructed some of the lower-ranking officers to check it out. However, when they returned twenty minutes later saying that they hadn't been able to detect any Zone-hops pertaining to Sonic the Hedgehog or the Prime Zone, Zonic got suspicious. It was starting to seem like the doubles of Sonic and Tails had originated in the Prime Zone. Just who _were_ they, though? Robots? Mini-clones? Celebrity look-alikes? He unmuted the Prime Zone monitor- just one of hundreds in his headquarters- to get a better idea of what was going on on-screen. Once he did, he heard the Sonics and Tailses referring to each other as "older-me" and "younger-me." At that point, everything started to fall into place.

And now the confused hedgehog sat in his office, staring at the Prime Zone monitor in disbelief. There was literally a time paradox happening, live, on his screen. Was there anything he could do about it? He didn't exactly have prior experience with time travel. Not to mention, he didn't have access to all the details. Even after rewinding the tape back to that afternoon and reviewing the footage, he didn't learn much. Sonic and his friends were at a birthday party, they all got sucked into weird portals- the likes of which Zonic had never seen before- and then they were instantly back, with a younger Sonic and Tails in tow.

That left a lot of unanswered questions, and unanswered questions left Zonic uneasy. One question he had was: should he interfere? It was his job to deal with temporal abnormalities, sure. But time paradoxes? How exactly does one deal with those? Would it even be a good idea, introducing a third blue hedgehog whose name ended with "-onic" into the mix? Past experience told him that having more than two Sonics anywhere at any given time could possibly get really confusing, really fast.

The door to his private headquarters opened quietly behind him, the only sound made being the _whoosh_ of the metal door as it slid open. He turned around to greet his surprise guest. The intruder, another Zone Cop, based on his red-and-gold uniform, entered the room. A single yellow horn protruded from beneath the visor on his helmet, and he sported a long, curly, purple tail.

"Hey, Zonic," the newcomer said, raising his right hand in a lazy salute. Zonic stood up.

"Lieutenant Zespio," he said calmly, returning the salute with swift, accurate movements.

"Always with the formalities, eh Blue?"

"Always," the hedgehog said, dropping his hand to his side. He didn't mind when Zespio or Zector was informal with him during work, but he himself insisted on keeping things official at all times. "Anyway, what is it? I've kind of got something big here that I need to continue to look into, so make it fast," he said, speaking quickly. He glanced occasionally back at the Prime Zone monitor.

Zespio nodded. "Yeah, I know. That's actually what I came to talk to you about. You see, the Commander has taken notice of this 'something big' and requested that you go see her immediately," he said, quick and to the point. The hedgehog groaned.

"Great... Just what I needed. A little pep talk from the new Commander." He sighed and picked his helmet up off of his chair. He slipped the headgear onto his head, squeezing his short blue quills inside. He had previously had worn his quills long, like most other Sonics in the multiverse. However, professionalism called. Besides, he didn't have much use for long, sharp quills like his dimensional counterparts did. "I'll go to see her right away. If you're not busy, mind taking my shift until I get back?" he asked. Zespio smiled.

"No problem," he said. "Good luck. She's not in the best of moods today." Zonic nodded grimly before leaving his office, letting the chameleon handle monitor duty for a bit.

Zonic frowned. He wasn't much in the mood to go talk to the new Commander. Especially if she was going to chew him out for something that wasn't even his fault. His old boss never would have done that. Commander Zally had been great at her job. She was qualified, and respected everyone who worked under her- and in turn, all of the officers that were under her jurisdiction had respected her. A few months ago, she had been promoted and moved to a different district of the Zone Cop Corps, so no one Zonic worked with had seen her in a while. In her place was a new up-and-comer, a "real determined and hard-working officer," as Zally had said. From the limited interaction Zonic had had with his new boss, he had to agree that the new girl had determination. Alas, she also was prone to being too hard on him and his men, and she expected everyone to work at a lightning-fast pace. It was true that Zonic liked his men to get work done quickly too, but he at least was understanding and knew that no one could work that hard for long stretches of time. The Commander had a real fiery personality, there was no denying that.

Zonic stalked through the halls of the precinct until he arrived at the Commander's office. He stood up straight and lowered his visor, as was expected of him, and knocked on the door before sticking his head in. The Commander's office was well-furnished, with a wooden desk, computer, leather chairs, and various certificates and awards decorating the walls.

"You wanted to see me, ma'am?" he said, addressing the purple cat who was sitting behind the desk.

"Ah, Captain Zonic. Yes, come on in," she said, motioning for him to take a seat. Zonic entered the room, closing the door behind him. His expression was unreadable- hard as stone, and with only his mouth visible due to his visor covering his eyes. He sat down in one of the chairs, leaning back and lacing his fingers together.

"So, Commander Zlaze," he said, taking the opportunity to speak first, "what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"It has to do with current events in the Prime Zone. Events which involve a certain blue hedgehog, whom I believe falls under _your_ watch, correct?"

"If you are referring to Sonic, then yes. What do these current events entail, exactly?"

"You know _damn_ well what they entail, officer," Zlaze said coolly. "They are concerned with the fact that there are- as I understand- two Sonics and two Tailses currently in the Prime Zone. However, all of the Sonics and Tailses that we keep tabs on are in their _own Zones,_ aside from Scourge, who is currently locked away behind bars in Zone Jail. So, seeing as you are the officer tasked with keeping watch over all of the Sonics in the multiverse, would you be so kind as to inform me as to what the _hell_ is going on?"

"Yikes, no need to get bitter, ma'am," Zonic said, sitting up straight and clearing his throat. "I was actually just looking into that issue. I believe it has something to do with time travel, not dimensional travel. The extra hedgehog and fox come from a different point in the Prime Zone's history."

"You _believe?_"

"The issue was only brought to my attention about fifteen minutes ago. I still don't know everything about the situation."

"You seem to know enough. Why haven't you gone to the Prime Zone to investigate the matter yet? You DO know how serious time paradoxes can be, yes?"

"Well, yes ma'am, I do, but-"

"-But you were just about to leave to go to the Prime Zone? Excellent, that is exactly what I wanted to hear, Zonic."

"C-Commander! I can't just go in there, I-"

"Off you go, Zonic. I am very busy at the moment, and I don't have the time to put up with your arguing. Our conversation here is done." Zlaze looked away from Zonic and turned to her computer. Zonic glared at her from under his mask, but said nothing more. He simply stood up, saluted, and walked out the door, closing it with a slam.

He walked back through the hallways to his office, appearing as calm as ever. The hedgehog was certainly glad he was good at covering up his emotions, because he was currently very unhappy.

_'What is with her? I haven't even done anything wrong!'_ he thought._ 'It's almost like she's never served as a regular cop before. These things take time to scope out, especially when it's something as sensitive as a time paradox. I don't have any experience with these- NO ONE around here does. And she expects me to just waltz right into Prime Zone, and do what exactly? Go in and yell at some kids for being in the wrong time period? I tried to tell her that there's just nothing I can do about this. But of course, me being an "elite officer" and all, I'm expected to be able to do everything.'_ He huffed in frustration. He swore, sometimes the whole Zone Cop gig wasn't all it was cracked up to be. _'I can't believe they thought that she would be a suitable replacement for Zally. Just because she's apparently good in a battle doesn't mean she's good at everything.'_ He shook his head. Now he had no choice but to go to Prime Zone, or else it was likely that he would lose his job. And he wasn't about to let that happen. Zonic sighed. At the very least, he could ask his Prime Zone counterpart about why there were currently two more people living with him than normal. Just because there was nothing he could do about the problem didn't mean that he wouldn't be able to learn more about it.

At that moment, in the Prime Zone, the four residents of the workshop were feeling drowsy after eating so much take-out food. The oldest hedgehog offered to clean up the mess they left in the living room. He took the leftovers to the kitchen, taking a few minutes to make room for them in the fridge. When he returned, however, he found his younger self and the two Tailses curled up on the couch, all of them fast asleep. He sighed, a small grin on his face. _'Looks like we set up that bunk bed for nothing,'_ he thought. He yawned. He bent down to pick some stray napkins up off the floor, but stopped when something made his ear prick up. It sounded like a low-pitched hum, and was barely audible. Still, Sonic was able to recognize it. He stood up and turned around, finding himself standing face-to-face with a large, orange portal floating in the middle of his living room. He placed his hands on his hips as the portal opened up, revealing an armor-clad, sideways-standing police officer on the other side. The cop didn't look to be in a particularly good mood- then again, he usually looked like that.

"Sonic Prime. It's been a while," he said.

"Yeah, I'll say. Long time no see, Zonic!" Sonic said, flashing a smile. "What brings you over to this little corner of the multiverse?"

"I'll give you one guess," the cop said, his expression remaining stoic. Sonic exhaled through pursed lips as he glanced back at his sleeping friends on the couch. He scratched the back of his head before turning back to face the Zone Cop.

"Fine, get in here. Just be quiet about it, they all just fell asleep." Sonic motioned for the No-Zoner to come in before picking up the napkins that were still on the floor and setting them on the table. The officer crossed the threshold of the portal, the gateway closing up behind him. He stood sideways, floating in mid-air, like always. That was one thing that differentiated No-Zoners from other folks; because their zone was perpendicular to every other zone, they always ended up standing sideways when outside of their own dimension. Sonic had always wondered how exactly they managed to walk in mid-air and avoid walls and things, but he figured that that question didn't have a straight-forward answer, so he never bothered to ask about it. All he knew was that it probably took a lot of practice, as he himself was always extremely disoriented when he was in the No Zone.

"Let's talk outside," the officer suggested. "Don't want to accidentally wake _yo_u up and cause any MORE confusion." Sonic playfully punched him in the arm.

"Was that a tiny hint of _humor_ I detect there, Zonic?" he said with a chuckle.

"I don't know. You tell me," Zonic replied blankly. The two went outside into the warm summer air. Sonic closed the front door behind him, and then leaned up against the side of the house. The Zone Cop looked down at him and folded his arms.

"Alright, so what do you wanna know?" Sonic asked nonchalantly.

"What I want to know is where those two kids came from. Am I correct in assuming that they're the past-versions of you and Tails?"

"Mmhmm. Our younger selves. It's kind of a long story, so you might wanna take a seat," Sonic suggested. Zonic shrugged and sat down on the side of the house. Sonic continued. "Alright, so me and some of my friends were just chilling out in this field, eating some food, having a good time. Then, all of a sudden, this gigantic purple and black monster appears out of nowhere, and opens up all these weird time-portals. He sucks everyone up into a different portal, and when I tried to save them, he just swatted me aside and I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was in this bizarre, empty, white limbo. The only things I could see in the distance were some colorless hills and cliffs, so I ran towards them. Turns out, it was GreenHill- all lifeless and dead. Once I ran through the place, it lit up like a Christmas tree, and all the colors came back. I ran through a few more places, all of them being places I had been in the past. And as I went along, I managed to save some of my friends, returning color to them too.

"Then, I come to this big, ominous door, right? So I walk in, and I'm in a long, black hallway, with one wall of the place being nothing but mirrors. Well, at least I _thought_ they were mirrors. What I thought was my reflection actually turned out to be _another Sonic-_ you know, the one currently passed out on my couch. We hear Eggman, and he says some stuff, and the two of us take off towards the end of the hallway, where this other huge door was. The little me reached it first, and it closed after he went in. Turns out, he got to battle one of Eggman's big old robots in the Death Egg. After I leave the weird hallway place, we meet up, and we find the younger Tails. We manage to figure out that Eggman had something to do with the monster that had abducted us all, and that the creature was ripping apart space and time. The more we ran, the more color and life was restored to the places and times he had decimated."

"Sounds like one whacked-up adventure, if you ask me," Zonic commented.

"Haha, dude, I think every adventure I've had with you can top the whole time-travel fiasco," Sonic laughed. "Anyways, we eventually restored everything we saw to color, nabbed all seven Chaos Emeralds, and got ready to fight the monster. And, surprise surprise, Eggman was behind the monster- he called it a Time-Eater- all along. And it wasn't just him! He actually had the audacity to recruit his past self to help him out. Can you believe that?" Sonic chuckled. "Anyhoo, we whooped their sorry Egg-butts and sent the Time-Eater packing. The world once again saved, we all went back to the real world, back to the field where we started out. After we hung out there for a little bit, a portal opened up that would take the littles back to their own time. And, as you might have guessed, they didn't make it. The portal closed up before they could get through it. That's why they're staying with us until we can find a way to get them home. You wouldn't happen to know how to make that happen, would you?" he asked the Zone Cop. Zonic shook his head.

"Sorry. Time travel isn't exactly my forte. If they were from another dimension, it would be no problem," he explained. _'Try explaining that to the Commander,'_ he thought to himself grumpily.

"Oh," Sonic said, a little disappointed. "It's okay, no prob. I just figured, you know, since you actually showed up, I thought you might be able to do something."

"I'll look into it when I get back to No Zone. No guarantees I'll be able to find anything though," Zonic said, standing up. Sonic nodded.

"Alright, thanks," he smiled. "So, how're things in No Zone?"

"Huh?"

"You know, what's up?"

"Ah. Well, Dr. Nega is spreading my forces thin, I've got the new Commander breathing down my neck constantly, and I've been stuck doing monitor duty all week. Nothing but watching all the Sonics of the multiverse, all day every day."

"Jeez, Zonic, you ever do anything besides work?" Sonic asked, raising an eyeridge. The No-Zoner shrugged.

"Zespio and Zector were planning on taking me out tonight for my birthday, but the Commander ordered me to come here to figure out what the deal was with the whole situation going on here. And, well... Duty calls," he said, flipping up the visor on his helmet, revealing his face.

"Oh, man, bummer majores," said Sonic. A light bulb went on in his head as a smile spread slowly across his face. "Wait here," he said, heading back inside. Zonic cocked an eyeridge. _'What's he up to now?'_ the armor-clad hedgehog wondered. He was left waiting for only a moment, Sonic living up to his name. The speedster emerged from inside the house holding two plates, each one with a slice of cake on it. He handed one of the plates to Zonic with a grin.

"Happy birthday, Zonic," he said as Zonic took the plate of cake from him. The cop couldn't help but smile at this. Even though it was clearly leftovers from Sonic's own birthday cake, it was still birthday cake.

"Thanks, Sonic. You, too."

"Um, you can eat that, right? Because if the whole sideways thing is a problem-"

"Haha, no, I can eat it standing sideways," Zonic chuckled. "Trust me, I have practice with this kind of stuff."

"Okay, cool, just checking," Sonic said with a wink. "I couldn't just let you skip out on birthday fun because of your job. Even if you're practically a workaholic, you need time to chillax. Especially today!" Zonic nodded. He supposed it was true- he did have a tendency to take his work more seriously than he should. He had his reasons for this, of course, but that didn't deter from the fact that he worked almost constantly. It was nice to just kick back and enjoy his birthday for once. He took a bite of the cake- chocolate, his favorite!- and let the pastry rest on his tongue. Okay, he didn't care that the cake was leftover from that afternoon. It was really good.

It didn't take long for the two birthday boys to finish their cake, even with Zonic being forced to eat his at a somewhat awkward angle to make sure it didn't fall off his fork and onto the ground. Sonic let out a powerful burp.

"Oh, man! That's the stuff. Okay, I officially can't eat anything else today. I am stuffed," he laughed. "So, whatcha gonna do now?" he asked, looking up at his dimensional double. Zonic sighed, handed Sonic his empty plate, and flipped his visor back down over his eyes.

"Probably head back to No Zone. I still have work to do, after all. Thanks for the mini-birthday party, though. I needed it."

"Don't mention it! I mean, it's our twentieth. You shouldn't miss out on a little cake-break on your twentieth birthday, dude."

"Agreed," the Zone Cop concurred. "Well, I suppose my work here is done. I'll see you around, Prime," he said. He pressed a button in the center of his metallic belt buckle, which caused a Zone Portal to open up in front of him. He raised a hand goodbye as he leapt through the portal. Sonic waved back as the officer disappeared, leaving him alone outside the workshop. The sneaker-clad hedgehog turned to go back inside, placing his hand on the doorknob and twisted it. It wouldn't budge. He tried again, with similar results. Sonic groaned. He had accidentally locked himself out. Of course. At least it was warm outside.

Sonic jumped up to the roof with ease, placing the empty plates he was holding down on the shingles. He walked over to his bedroom window and pushed up on it. He could see that it was unlocked, but it was stuck fast. He shrugged nonchalantly. He was perfectly fine with sleeping on the roof, anyway, so it didn't really matter to him too much if he couldn't get inside. He laid down on the roof, arms crossed behind his head, quills relaxed so they spread out when his head came in contact with the shingled surface. He looked up at the stars twinkling in the night sky above.

_'Well, today's events were... unexpected, to say the least,'_ he thought. _'Fun, though! Today was probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. Lots of _me_ today. Me, my younger self, my double from No Zone... That's more Sonic than I bargained for today, but whatever. As long as Tails and I can get our past-selves back to their own time, we'll be in the clear. And considering little-me and I still have the Chaos Emeralds from when we went Super today, it shouldn't be too hard!'_ He smiled. This was going to be a cinch. He relaxed, letting his muscles loosen. He snuggled his face into his own quills- it is a little known fact that his quills are actually quite soft and comfortable if relaxed enough- and started to doze off.

"Wait." He shot up and reached inside his quills, where he had a habit of storing things. "Rings, check. Spare house key (hey, that would have been nice to know about a few minutes ago!), check. Chaos Emeralds... Emeralds, emeralds, emeralds, where the heck are those things?!" Sonic looked around for them frantically, thinking they might have fallen when he jumped up onto the roof. "No... No, those things stay put when I'm breaking the sound barrier, they wouldn't fall out of my quills just by me jumping up here. Don't tell me I lost them! Man, with all the time travel shenanigans that happened today, those things could be _anywhere!_" He held his head in his hands and groaned. He flopped onto his back. "Tails is _soooo_ going to kill me in the morning," he mumbled, feeling like a complete idiot. He would just have to sleep on the roof, in order to put off that encounter until the morning.

* * *

**Notes: **And so concludes chapter three! Hopefully I made everything concerning the Zone Cops clear enough that you don't need prior knowledge about them to understand this chapter. They really don't appear in the comics too much, so I don't have much to go off of. Much of the stuff about the No Zoners here is stuff I've made up.

Sorry for the inherent lack of action and adventure in this story so far! The next chapter will have a bit more _oomph_ to it in terms of that, and once we meet one last character, we can really get this train a'rolling. I'm excited, and hopefully you guys are too! If you are (or even if you're not), feel free to write a review! See you next week!

P.S. _Super Mega Blasteroids 9 _is a reference to Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, in the episode Bye Bye Nerdy. Obscure reference is obscure.


	4. Prison Rat

**Notes:** Sup guys! As promised, this week's chapter is all about Scourge. I've tried to keep him as in-character as possible, though you can probably guess from reading the summary of this story that he won't stay totally true to how he is in the comics. Anyway, let's get to it!

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Zone Jail. The most infamous high-security prison in the whole multiverse. Floating several hundred feet above the ground, it was virtually impossible to break in or out. The place where the worst of the worst were sent to reform. Only, one particular hedgehog's schedule didn't involve a whole lot of reforming at the moment. It mainly just involved getting beaten up in the rec yard before lunch.

"What do you want, Smalls?" the spiny mammal moaned through sharp teeth. "I'm not in the mood to get pummeled today, so if you wouldn't mind-"

"No can do, Snot," laughed Smalls, the blubbery, purple cat. He pounded his fist into his open palm. "Don't tell me you've forgotten what today is!"

"Wha...?"

"It's your birthday, ain't it? Well, I gotta let you have your birthday punches!" the cat grinned. The green hedgehog grimaced. Of course. Birthday punches. And birthday kicks. And birthday slaps. And birthday knees to his no-no zone. And maybe even a birthday concussion, at this rate.

"Oh, come on "King" Scourge, cheer up! It's not every day you turn twenty years old!" Smalls chuckled. He advanced towards the nervous hedgehog, who in turn, took several steps back. Smalls backed Scourge into a corner of the rec yard. No escape now. Several more inmates saw this and smiled. They all gathered around, some wanting to get a whack at Scourge themselves, some just wanting to watch the show. Scourge groaned. _'Happy birthday, me,'_ he thought.

"C'mon Smalls, can't we just talk this over? I mean- hey, I still haven't healed from yesterday! You really wanna beat down on someone already broken? I'm sure I could find you some fresh meat to soften your knuckles on. How's that sound?" He asked hopefully.

"Tempting..." Smalls said, thinking the proposal through. Scourge's face slowly lit up. Smalls grinned darkly. "I'm gonna hafta pass on it, though, Birthday Boy." Scourge gulped. So much for Plan A. And since he was cornered with no escape, there was only one Plan B. And, as is the nature of the Plan B, this plan was way more risky.

Scourge was going to have to fight his way out of here.

Normally, fighting these bozos wouldn't have been a problem for the former king of the anti-zone, Moebius. He had been fast, strong, and ruthless. He had beaten Sonic, Shadow, and everyone else to a stand still. He had been unstoppable. The multiverse was his for the taking! He had only been beaten by a mere technicality: he had become weak and vulnerable after he was tricked into powering down from his Super form.

And now, the former king was stuck in the Zone Jail, powerless. Just another worm in the mud, getting his face beaten in day after day. After more or less a year of being trapped in this hellhole, Scourge was starting to really get sick of it.

Suddenly, a punch flew towards his head. Normally, thanks to his lightning-fast reflexes, Scourge would have been able to dodge the flying fist, no problem. But in the Zone Jail, with his abilities suppressed by the inhibitor collar around his neck, that was no longer the case. He took the punch square in the jaw, which sent him stumbling backwards into the concrete wall surrounding the yard. Luckily, the next punch that came at him from Smalls was visible a mile away, so he was able to duck out of the way in time. Smalls' fist smashed into the wall, cracking the cement. _'Jeez, he means business this time!'_ Scourge thought, sidestepping around the large cat. Someone behind the hedgehog had stuck their leg out, catching his foot and causing him to trip backwards. He landed in the mud with an _oomph_, but quickly leapt back to his feet. He wasn't going to go down _that_ easily.

He was quickly surrounded by three of the goons in the crowd. His quills bristled with anticipation. If only his sharp spines hadn't been cut short and kept pruned. Then maybe Scourge would have an advantage. One of the baddies surrounding him, a wolf, raised her fist up to clock him in the face. Scourge got ready to dodge the punch and counterattack, but was caught off guard by a sudden kick to the back, thanks to the skunk behind him. He stumbled forward, walked right into the awaiting punch, and tumbled backward. The other inmates started shoving him around like he was a plaything, all the while adding to his collection of bruises. He rammed his head into the skull of a weasel who was closing in on him with a punch, and then swung his leg around to kick the wolf in the stomach. Unfortunately, this only seemed to make them mad. Scourge felt a hand grip the back of his shirt, tipping him off balance. Smalls, having removed his fist from the wall by this point, ran up and punched him again, this time landing a hit straight in his gut. The hedgehog collapsed to his knees and coughed. He wiped a little bit of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Hey! Break it up!" yelled a voice from above. One of the guards of the prison, walking above them on a suspended walkway, had his rifle pointed towards the group of inmates. Realizing their fun was over, the crowd began to disperse, some grumbling that they didn't get a turn, some laughing at the fact that the former king of Moebius had become nothing more than their punching bag.

"Happy birthday, Snot," Smalls laughed, giving the hedgehog one final kick in the side before walking off. Scourge slowly got back to his feet. _'That didn't go as well as I'd hoped,'_ he thought, spitting out a little more blood. He must have accidentally bit his tongue when he got punched in the mouth before. Fantastic. His mutation just had to have given him razor-sharp teeth. He exhaled. This wasn't one of the best birthdays he's had, that was for sure. He sat down on a bench in the corner of the yard.

_'Man... I remember the birthday I had a few years ago. A permanent transformation thanks to the Master Emerald on Mobius was a helluva birthday present. Enhanced speed, more power… Not to mention a makeover. The day I finally became more than a cheap knock-off of Sonic.'_ He frowned. Sonic. His dimensional duplicate. His goody two-shoes, true blue twin. The one who had put him in the Zone Jail in the first place. Scourge couldn't stand the thought of him. The guy that everybody loved, the guy who always won, the guy who just _had_ to be the hero at everything he did. The one who, somehow, had always managed to one-up him.

Of course, being alternate-dimension versions of one another, they were more similar than they would care to admit. Scourge cringed as the words Sonic once told him snaked back into his head.

_"All it would take is a little bit of selflessness, a little decency... And _you'd_ be just like _me_."_

Scourge clenched his fists tight at the haunting memory. He detested admitting it, but Sonic wasn't far off from the truth. He could feel it inside of him. With his current lack of power, he just didn't have it in him to try anything evil or malicious. He was determined to not become a goody-goody, but he had a hard time identifying himself as a criminal, like the other inmates in the prison. Maybe it was the time spent powerless behind the bars, or the daily beatings, but he just didn't feel like he was one of them anymore. He was starting to see a tiny bit of Sonic in him- and THAT was scaring him.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had caught himself thinking about the differences- or, lack of- between him and Sonic more and more recently. At least when he was getting pummeled, that was all physical. He could deal with that. When he was left alone with his thoughts? That could get just downright haunting at times.

_'But why? Why am I so determined to be the biggest baddie, anyway? Just 'cause I'm the 'anti-Sonic,' I have to be evil by default? There's got to be some other reason!'_ he thought. He looked around the rec yard and frowned. _'Well, duh, it's because people _respect_ me when I'm evil. No one cares about me unless they feel threatened by me. That's why I'm nothing but trash in this place. I can't do much to anyone without my speed, so they see that as a green light to beat me senseless.'_

_'Yeah, but Sonic doesn't need to intimidate to get respect,'_ said the little voice in his head. _'People respect him, power or not.'_ Scourge tried to squash the voice out, but that idea was implanted in his head now. Sonic had _friends_ who stuck by him, not just temporary allies that turned on him when it suited them. Even when Sonic made a mistake, he always had someone there to back him up. On the other hand, one mistake for Scourge landed him in prison, with no sign of help coming. How big of a threat had he really been then, if none of his so-called "allies" even thought about busting him out of this joint? Was he really so negligible? Just another petty criminal who got too big for his boots, some egomaniac who crashed and burned? A washed-up has-been, even?

He tried to push the thoughts away, shove them into some distant corner of his mind, when the lunch bell rang. _'Perfect. Maybe some food will get my mind out of this rut,'_ he thought, standing up. He flinched. His midsection was pretty sore, and it was likely going to be black-and-blue in the morning. He wasn't even feeling particularly hungry at the moment. Still, he would do just about anything to escape from his little pity-party. He followed the crowd of people heading back inside, keeping his head low so as to not draw attention to himself. He wasn't in the mood for any more birthday punches today.

Soon, the green hedgehog was sitting down at an empty table near the back of the cafeteria, poking at his food with his plastic fork. Oh boy, generic slop- his favorite. Oh well, at least it was better than mud; Scourge had had his face shoved into the dirt more times than he could count, and he still hated the taste. He took a bite of his food, the lukewarm mush slithering down his throat. He shuddered and pushed the plate away from him with his fork. His stomach couldn't handle this garbage at the moment. Oh, what he would give for a chili dog right about then.

"Oh, there you are!" said a high-pitched voice coming from behind Scourge.

"We found you!" another one said. The former king cringed. He knew those voices all too well. He turned his head to see two short, cartoony-looking humanoids approaching him, looking all too happy to see him. He groaned as they sat down on either side of him, plopping their trays of food down simultaneously.

_'Cal and Al. Fantastic.'_ Scourge was less than fond of the two strange beings. Granted, they were the only two people in the whole jail who didn't beat on him, but that was mainly because they were two of the only people weaker than he was. They meant well, but their over-the-top cheeriness and friendliness was just too much for the hedgehog to handle at any given moment, and they usually just made him feel worse about his current situation.

"What's the matter, ol' chum? Something got you down?" Cal asked in his annoying little voice.

"I was a freaking KING, for pity's sake. I shouldn't be getting smacked around like this," the hedgehog grumbled in response, looking straight ahead.

"Well, look on the bright side!" Al said, "Cal and I were gods back in our home Zone! And since you were only a king, that kind of puts it... in perspective?" He finished his statement nervously as Scourge glared daggers at him.

"And besides, it's your birthday, isn't it? The big 2-0! You should be celebrating!" said Cal, backing up his companion.

"Pfft. With trash like this?" Scourge scoffed, poking his "food" with his fork. "If I eat any more of this crud, I'm gonna blow chunks. How much you wanna bet that all my other dimensional twins are eatin' birthday cake and lounging around and having a grand old time while I'm stuck in here? Yeah, some birthday." He stood up and tossed his food in the garbage.

"H-hey, buddy, where're you going?" Al asked.

"None of your business," Scourge said, turning and walking out of the mess hall. He was really not in the mood to put up with Cal and Al at the moment. He would do just about anything to escape his self-pity party, but hanging around those two was not one of them.

_'Buddy? Yeah, right. It's obvious that those two only hang around me because I'm more fun for everyone else to beat up. They're using me as a _meat shield,_ for crying out loud.'_ Scourge exhaled and dragged his hand down one side of his face. _'Man, at this point, I think I'd rather be alone with my thoughts than get stuck with anyone else in this joint,'_ he thought. He turned left down the hallway, and headed in the direction of the prison showers. If he couldn't eat, he might as well clean the dirt and blood off of himself. Not to mention, the chances of someone bothering him in there while food was being served were minimal.

Approaching the shower room for the male inmates, Scourge poked his head in the door cautiously. Luckily, the room was empty, and he heaved a sigh of relief. He closed the door behind him as he entered. The room was more like a multi-sectioned hallway than anything else. The walls and floor were all tiled, and there were drains placed in the ground at equal increments. Seeing how privacy in the prison was close to non-existent, everyone pretty much showered in the open. He removed his boots and orange jumpsuit and placed them aside. Turning on the water, he stood under the spray and let himself get soaked. He didn't care that the water wasn't warm. It was still refreshing enough. He started to scrub the mud and dried up blood out of his fur. The cool water puddled around his feet, providing Scourge with a reflection of himself.

His reflection. His, and at the same time, not his at all. Even after his mutation triggered by the Master Emerald, he still looked almost exactly like his sworn enemy. Every time he looked at his own face, it felt as if Sonic were staring down at him triumphantly, declaring something stupid like, "Good always wins in the long run!"

Scourge chuckled to himself. "Huh, wonder if the good guy side is hiring. I could do with a nice victory or two," he mused. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the tiled wall, letting the water cascade down his spines, which had been cut short as soon as he arrived in the prison. _'Actually... In all seriousness, having people who actually gave a crap about me would probably be a pretty good deal. Even with all that responsibility that comes with the whole hero job, at least I wouldn't be alone.'_ He pondered the idea for about two seconds before rejecting the notion outright. _'Gah, what am I thinking! Changing sides? Pull yourself together, Scourge. You're supposed to be the fearless King of Moebius, not some pansy who needs backup and group hugs to make himself feel good.'_

He shook his head. It felt like he was at war with himself; his common sense vs. his ego. Common sense dictated that life as a villain hadn't been exactly paying off, and that he _did_ possess the potential to change. His ego, on the other hand, kept saying that being evil was just who he was, and that being imprisoned was just a minor setback on his path to power and glory.

Common sense asked why he needed power and glory in the first place.

Ego responded saying that he needed to be respected and honored.

Common sense retorted, stating that there was more than one way to earn people's respect.

Scourge clenched his eyes shut and stuck his fingers in his ears to try and block out the arguing voices in his head. "Shut up shut up shut up!" he yelled, bringing himself back to reality. He couldn't keep going like this. As if paranoia and weakness hadn't been enough, he could now add 'mental instability' to his list of side effects of being in Zone Jail. He sighed. He knew that if he thought on it long enough, he could decide once and for all whether being a bad guy was really still in his best interests or not. The problem was, he was afraid of willingly identifying himself as a good guy. It went against everything he knew, and he felt way out of his comfort zone even considering the idea. Even so… there were certainly perks to the good guy lifestyle. For one, he wouldn't be in jail if he were a hero. That was pretty much a given. But he could have friends, allies that would stick by him and _not_ use him as a meat shield. People would respect him, even if he was powerless and weak. And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to win at something for once in his life.

The green hedgehog glanced back down at his reflection in the puddle at his feet. Maybe he was only the way he was today because of the cards he had been dealt. After all, he and Sonic were essentially the same in every aspect except their pasts and their attitudes. Heck, Scourge could have easily grown up like Sonic did, and he would have turned out to be a hero. If he hadn't been born on the Anti-Mobius, his life would have been completely different. It was kind of weird to think about. There were hundreds- no, thousands of Sonics in the multiverse. And he could have ended up as any one of them. The only reason they were all different was because they all grew up in different places. They all had the potential to be like one another.

Scourge had the potential to be like Sonic.

He shuddered at the thought. He wasn't ready for anything like that. Not yet. Maybe he would give the whole good guy gig a shot, though. After seeing how well being a villain had worked out, Scourge figured it couldn't hurt to try something new.

He shut off the shower, the water having turned from refreshing to just plain cold. Grabbing a fresh towel from the corner, he began to dry himself off. "Now..." he wondered aloud, slipping his clothes back on, "What does a guy have to do around here to get a shot at being the hero?"

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**Notes: **Yes, if it wasn't clear, Scourge _is_ going to be a good guy in this story. He sure won't have an easy time with it though, that's for sure. I've seen far too many fics where he suddenly switches sides with almost no thought. So hopefully my interpretation of him is true to his character!

We won't see Scourge or Zonic for another little while, though- the story's going to be switching back to Sonic and Co. for a few chapters. They have some Emeralds to find, and problems of their own to face! But once these two come back, they'll be back for the rest of the story, so don't worry. We'll see plenty of our favorite cop and murderer later on.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated, and I'll love you forever 3


	5. Sonic And The Valley Of The Wind

**Notes: **Hope you all enjoyed that little intermission! Now that we know what Zonic and Scourge are up to, let's check in on the Workshop. Thanks so much for the reviews and favorites, guys! I really do appreciate them.

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"You _WHAT?_" It was morning in the workshop, and Tails had let his older brother back into the house, only to hear some very distressing news. "You LOST the Chaos Emeralds?!" Sonic could practically see the smoke puffing out of the fox's ears.

"I said I was sorry, didn't I?" he said with a corny whoopsie-daisy smile, his ears falling flat against his head. Tails shook his head and frowned.

"Sonic... Come on, we need those! How could you just lose them?"

"I dunno! I don't even know when I lost them. And besides, how do you know for sure that we need them? Maybe we can figure out this whole time travel thing all on our own."

"Yeah, maybe. But you know the drill," Tails stated. "Whenever anything big goes down, we need all seven Chaos Emeralds to make things right again. It's practically a law of physics at this point; the only way to get anything done is with the Emeralds."

"You have a good point there," Sonic admitted, putting a finger to his chin in thought. "I'm sure we can find them again, though. We always do. And besides, this time there are two of me and two of you! We can get the job done, double time."

Tails glanced back at the couch, where the two time-travelers were still asleep. Lil' T had curled himself up into the young Sonic's lap, and the two were sleeping soundly. "You had better hope so," the older fox said. "I don't know what these two being here will do to the timeline. This whole household has practically become a walking time paradox overnight."

Sonic scoffed. "Oh, come on. It can't be that damaging to the timeline if they're here for a little while, can it?"

"I'm not sure. But... remember yesterday, when they were playing Super Mega Blasteroids 9? They beat the boss at level 10," Tails stated. Sonic was confused.

"Yeah... What's your point?"

"My _point_ is that we couldn't beat that level when we were their age. We beat it when we were older- by a few years, in fact. I know it's not a very big time paradox, but it still counts!"

"Really? It took us THAT LONG to get past level 10? Man. We are sad, sad individuals, Tails."

"Sonic! Look at the big picture, please."

"Okay, okay! Right, yeah. Time paradox, got it. I still don't see how it's such a huge deal. They beat the level before we did, so what. I don't see the universe falling apart at the seams or anything," the hedgehog pointed out.

"Hey, I'm not claiming to know the exact science of how paradoxes work. All I'm saying is, the longer they're here, the more we're in danger of something bad happening with the flow of time. I can just feel it," Tails protested. Sonic nodded.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to get the Emeralds back before that 'something bad' happens!" he said with a cocky grin. He rubbed the fox's head reassuringly. "I'm gonna take a shower. That's the bad thing about sleeping on the roof, I get all kinds of sticks and stuff stuck in my quills." He pulled a small twig out from behind his head to emphasize his point. He climbed the stairs and entered the bathroom, leaving Tails in the living room with the younger incarnations of themselves. The kit's namesakes swished about in frustration.

_'I don't even know where we should start looking for the Chaos Emeralds! They have a tendency to spread out all over the place, so they could be anywhere on Mobius right about now,'_ he thought with a groan. It was looking like he was going to have to boot up his old Emerald-locating equipment again. The gems had all been relatively easy to find when they were saving the world from the Time-Eater yesterday (Tails could barely believe that all that had happened less than twenty-four hours ago. It felt like weeks), as they were only so many places for them to hide. Now, they had the whole planet to spread out across. Even with the extra help from their past-selves, Tails estimated that it would take him and Sonic at least one week, maybe two, to gather up all the Emeralds again. He didn't feel very good about the whole situation, but that might have just been a consequence of being one of the only people who was worried.

_'As long as the time stream holds up... I should really look into that as well, and make sure nothing is getting screwed up with all the time shenanigans taking place here.'_ Tails sighed. It was going to be a long day.

He went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple out of the bowl on the counter. He took a bite out of it, the juice running down his muzzle. He wiped it off with the back of his hand and went back into the living room. He sat down in one of the armchairs and turned on the TV. He would start on his work once the sleeping forms on the couch woke up. Tails didn't really want to leave them alone; they were still in a fairly foreign environment, after all.

The fox started to flip through the channels on the television, unsuccessfully checking to see if anything good was on. He put on the news channel. If he was lucky, maybe there would be a report on someone who had found a Chaos Emerald. The odds in favor of that happening were infinitely low, but the two-tailed fox could hope.

The sound of the television caused the ear of the hedgehog asleep on the couch to prick up. He yawned, his eyes slowly opening. He rubbed the sleep out of them with his free hand- his little brother was curled up with the other one. He massaged the back of his neck, sore after sleeping at an odd angle.

"Hey, you're awake," Tails said, smiling. The twelve-year-old nodded.

"Mmmh," he said groggily. _'So it wasn't just some dream after all. Looks like we really are stuck eight years in the future,'_ he thought, looking around the room. "Where's older-me?"

"Takin' a showah," Tails responded after taking a bite out of his apple. He chewed and swallowed in frustration. "Would you believe that he actually went and lost the Emeralds he was carrying?" he exclaimed angrily.

"Oh, yeah, I lost mine too," the younger Sonic nodded.

"Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh. I noticed they were gone once we left that white, empty dimension. I think going through that portal must have sent them away or something? I'm not really sure. I figured we were done with them, so I didn't think it was important enough to bring up. Why, do we need them?" the hedgehog asked. Tails shrugged.

"I'm not exactly sure right now. As of right now, we don't have a way to get you and the younger-me back to your own time. When it comes to stuff like this, the Emeralds usually hold the key to the solution, so I would've liked to have them around," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"You have a good point there," Sonic agreed. He looked up at the TV. The volume was low, so he couldn't tell what was going on, but the news anchor looked serious about something. Tails followed the young speedster's gaze and turned up the volume on the TV.

"-completely dark. We repeat: Windy Valley is completely dark. For some reason, the suns' rays are not entering the area, and it still appears as if it is nighttime. We will continue to bring you updates as we get them, but let me tell you, experts are baffled by this strange occurrence."

"Well, that's something you don't see every day," Tails said curiously. The sun not rising in one region of the Mystic Ruins? That was scientifically impossible.

"I get the feeling that this has something to do with me and Tails being here," Sonic said, referring to the child still asleep in his lap. The older Tails frowned.

"You might be right about that. We should look into this, maybe we can find out what's going on over there."

"Alright, I'm game. Can we have breakfast first, though?" Sonic asked.

"Haha, yeah, sure. We've gotta wait for your older-self to get his butt out of the shower, anyway. C'mon, let's see what we've got in the kitchen." The fox pressed the mute button on the TV remote, silencing the current news broadcast, and stood up. Mini-Sonic gently nudged the small kit who was cuddling up on his lap.

"C'mon kiddo, time to wake up," he said, shaking the child's shoulder. Tiny Tails yawned, showing all his teeth.

"Mmm... Hi Sawnik," he said sleepily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Whassup?"

"You want some breakfast, Squirt?" Sonic lifted the six-year-old up off of his lap and set him down on the couch. "We've got a lot of stuff to do today."

"Like what?" Lil'T asked.

"Like solving a mystery. Come on, let's get some grub." The hedgehog hopped off the couch and led his friend into the kitchen.

The older Sonic returned downstairs about fifteen minutes later, his fur still a little damp from his shower. He glanced sideways at the muted television and entered the kitchen to find the Tailses and his twelve-year-old self.

"What, you guys couldn't wait for me before you decided to have breakfast?" the royal blue hedgehog said with a grin. He rubbed the younger Tails' head as he walked over to the fridge. He opened the door and reached his hand inside, pulling out a carton of orange juice. He took a swig of the juice right from the carton before offering some to his younger self.

"Ew, no way dude, gross," the small hedgehog said, making a face in disgust.

"You do realize that we have the same germs, right?" the older one said with a chuckle. When his double refused the orange juice again, he simply shrugged, took another gulp of the juice, and put it back into the fridge. "So, what's up? We have any plans today, or what?"

"Actually," Tails said, "I was wondering if you all could go check out WindyValley, and see what's going on there. _I_ have to stay here and start tracking down the Chaos Emeralds, seeing as how _some people_ managed to lose track of all seven."

"I apologized for that, like, ten times already! Why does nothing please you?!" Sonic yelled dramatically, shaking his fists in the air for added emphasis. "Wait- Windy Valley? What's up with WindyValley?"

"Apparently, the sun never rose there," his younger persona said from behind him. "It's still nighttime there. No one has any idea why."

"Whoa. Sounds like fun!" The elder couldn't help but smile. He didn't care that he and his friends had just saved the world yesterday- he was always ready for a new challenge! "Wonder why the sun's not up yet, though? I mean, WindyValley is just on the other side of Mystic Ruins. The sun should be shining over there by now."

The older Tails nodded. "Which is why we need to look into this. I'll bet you anything that this has to do with all the time travel nonsense that happened yesterday." He and Sonic turned and faced their younger selves, Sonic cocking an eyeridge.

"H-hey, don't go looking at us!" the light blue hedgehog said defensively, taking a step closer towards his little brother.

"Yeah! 'Snot our fault we're stuck here," the small fox kit pouted.

"We never said we were blaming you for anything!" the older Sonic exclaimed. "Just, you know... It's one heck of a coincidence that you two are in the wrong time period, and then something like this happens. Because if I had to guess, I'd guess that time in WindyValley is frozen. Or, at least, going really really slow. That's why it's still night there," he explained.

"I was thinking about that, too, but we won't know for sure until you guys go and check it out," Tails said.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road! Lil' T, you gonna come with us?" Sonic asked with a grin. The young fox nodded excitedly and stood up in his chair.

"Yeah! We're gonna solve a mystery!" he cheered.

"Just don't forget to take a communicator with you," his older self said. "I want to keep in touch, just in case anything happens."

"Aye aye, captain," said the twenty-year-old hedgehog. "Come on, kids! Let's go on an adventure!" He had a huge smile plastered on his face as he swiped a stray wrist communicator up off the kitchen table. He led the way out of the house with his arms held up high above his head. Lil' T followed behind gleefully, giggling excitedly. The younger Sonic scratched the inside of his ear. He turned to face the larger fox who was still in the kitchen.

"I'll keep an eye on them," he said with a sigh.

"Good idea. Have fun, and good luck," the two-tail said. The light blue hedgehog nodded and followed the other two out the front door.

It was a warm, sunny morning- perfect for a run through the Mystic Ruins. The eldest of the group stretched his arms out to the side to take in more sunlight.

"Man, that feels good! You guys are going to like WindyValley, let me tell you," he said, walking down the front steps of the workshop. "Tons of pathways to run on, lots of stuff to jump off of, plenty of room to fly around... Usually a lot of tornadoes around there, too. Those are extra fun, but I don't think we'll see one today. It's too nice out," he said.

"Whoa whoa whoa, tornadoes? Don't you think that's a little... extreme?" his younger self said, his eyes wide open.

"Nonsense! You haven't lived until you've ran around in one of those. But like I said, I don't think there'll be any today." Sonic looked down at the crystal key that was still lying by the front door. The gemstone on top of it was lime green, and had a swirl symbol on it. He bent down and picked it up, the stone key feeling heavy in his hand. "We're gonna need this," he said to himself. "Come on you two, it's not far to the entrance. Let's roll out!"

And with that, they were off. With the older Sonic leading the way, the trio made their way down the plateau and across the grassy hills of the ruins. They ran slowly enough so that Tails could keep up, but they still managed to make good time. It wasn't long at all before they reached a crevice in the wall of a cliff. Ushering the two youngsters in, Sonic pulled out the key.

Looking around, he was surprised that more people weren't around here- after all, mobians and humans alike were curious creatures, and would no doubt want to catch a glimpse of the valley which was still enveloped in darkness. Then again, this entrance to the valley was technically a shortcut, and without the key, it was impossible to get in. He dropped the key near a small pedestal jutting out of the ground. The artifact floated up into the air, and maneuvered itself into the correct position before lowering into a square shape indent on the pedestal's surface.

"Stand back!" the adult hedgehog yelled, backing away towards the wall. The ground began to rumble and shake as a massive gust of air blew up through one side of the small cavern. The floor on the far side of the area was completely blown away as a geyser of wind lifted it up with intense force. The bellowing winds were incredibly loud, and Lil' T had to cover his ears. The older Sonic motioned towards his younger self and Tails to follow him, and he started to walk calmly towards the massive air current.

Little Sonic's jaw dropped. "You want us to go _in there?!_" he shouted. Alas, the wind was too loud, and his voice was carried away. He shook his head. _'I can't believe I'm doing this.'_ He grabbed Tails' hand and walked alongside his older self, who smiled at him confidently. The taller hedgehog raised his hand and held up one finger. Then he raised up a second, and a third. With the third finger up, all three of them leapt into the wind and were blown away instantly.

"Wooooohoohoohooooooo!" Macro-Sonic cheered as he soared through the air. "This never gets old!"

"GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN!" yelled his past-self, who was clearly having less fun than he was. _'I really hope I don't become this crazy when I'm older!'_ he thought, knowing that the sentiment was to no avail- his future self had convinced him to do this, after all. Next to him, Tails was squealing with delight. The kid looked like he was having the time of his life. The wind blew the three of them through twisting, turning caverns and passageways, many of which had small propellers on the walls to catch the wind.

After careening at high-speeds through the various tunnels for several seconds, the trio was shot out into the open air. Lil' T grabbed a hold of the younger Sonic's hands and started to rapidly spin his twin tails, allowing for a slow and steady descent to the ground below. The older hedgehog simply dropped from the sky, landing on the ground feet-first with no difficulty. This was mainly because he loved coming to Windy Valley to run, and was used to being tossed around by the strong wind currents.

"That was fun! Let's do that again!" Lil' T exclaimed as he and his brother landed on the ground.

"Well, at least someone enjoyed it," the young Sonic stated, trying to regain his balance after the disorienting ride. He managed to steady his legs, and glanced up at the sky. It was still dark, with the moon and stars still visible. "Whoa," he gasped. "They weren't kidding when they said it was still nighttime here, were they?"

"What happened to this place...?" the older hedgehog wondered aloud. The whole area was dead silent; there were no birds chirping, or small critters scurrying about. There wasn't even any wind blowing. The whole valley was completely still.

"It's creepy here," the small fox commented, looking around. "It feels really empty."

"You said it. This place is usually full of wind, all the time. There are always tons of birds around, too, because the small floating islands scattered around here are great for them to nest on. But it doesn't look like anyone's here," the elder Sonic said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Do you think everyone left? Or... are all the people and animals in this zone frozen, just like the sky?" the golden-yellow kit asked him. Macro-Sonic shook his head.

"I'm not sure. There's only one way to find out, though. Follow me," he said, starting to walk across the cliff they were a standing on towards a large wooden bridge. The bridge connected the piece of land they were currently on with another cliff; in fact, these twisting wooden pathways sprawled across Windy Valley, connecting all the bits of land to one another. The walkways were all lightweight and made so that they resembled grates, with multitudes of small holes in the floor to allow the wind to blow through it without causing any structural damage. Sonic began to lead the two kids to a group of mountains in the distance. If the speedster remembered correctly, those mountains were the home to a number of villages. Maybe they could find some answers there.

"Be careful not to fall, you guys," he said turning back to face the two time-travelers. "It's a long way from here down to any kind of surface, and there isn't any wind blowing to catch you if you trip."

The younger Sonic took a peek over the side of the cliff and gulped. He shouldn't have looked. It wasn't just a long way down to the bottom- they were practically above the clouds! How on Mobius there was still breathable air this high up, he had no idea. And quite frankly, he wasn't complaining. Still, it was an impressive sight, to say the least.

"Wow, we're so high up!" Tails noted excitedly, kneeling down on all fours near the edge. "I can see the workshop from here!"

"Tails, you back away from there right now!" the young hedgehog yelled, pulling his little brother away from the edge. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry Sonic, I just wanted to see, is all," the child said innocently, pulling his tails up close to his chest. He frowned apologetically, and looked up at Sonic with large, puppy dog eyes. The face would have been enough to make even Eggman melt. The light blue hedgehog sighed.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. Just please try and be _careful_ from now on, okay Squirt?" he said, rubbing the fox kit's head.

"Deal!" he said with an enthusiastic nod.

Meanwhile, ignoring the advice of his past-self, the twenty-year-old hedgehog was glimpsing curiously over the side of the cliff. _'Everything in the distance is light... It's like it's daytime everywhere but here,'_ he noticed. He looked back down over at everything, hundreds of feet below.

"Ooh, there's the workshop! And that must be the train station, and that's Station Square..." he said to himself, pointing and listing all the places he could make out. "Oh no, not you too," his younger self moaned, slapping a palm to his face.

"What? I'm just lookin', lighten up!" the adult hedgehog replied. The communicator he was wearing on his wrist began to ring. He pressed a small button on the side of it, turning on the microphone and speaker.

"Talk to me," he said, speaking into the watch-esque device.

"Hi, Sonic! Did you and the littles make it to Windy Valley okay?" Tails said from the other end. His voice was a bit grainy, but still understandable.

"Yeah, we got here just fine. It's so weird here, though! Everything seems so... bleak. It's dark, there's no living creatures around, and there's no wind blowing. Not even a breeze."

"Wow. I think that's a first for Windy Valley. That's definitely interesting, though. _Does_ sound like stuff that would happen if time really did freeze."

"Totally. We were going to check out the villages around here, see what the deal is over there. Do you have any leads on the Chaos Emeralds yet?"

"Nothing definite yet, but I am picking up some energy readings not too far from you. Keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary."

"Can do, Tails. Thanks for the heads-up. Talk to you later, pal!" the hedgehog said enthusiastically before pressing a small button on the watch, ending the call. He slipped the watch back under his glove and turned to face the two children who had come with him. "C'mon you two, let's his the road. Time's a wastin'! Not, you know, literally. Duh. But who cares, let's keep going!" He motioned for his younger-self and Lil' T to follow, and then took off speeding down one of the many winding bridges, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. The other two were off mere seconds later, quickly catching up and matching the older hedgehog's speed. Tails flew alongside the bridge, taking advantage of boost rings in the air to give him quick bursts of speed. Seeing his little bro flying above what was essentially a bottomless pit made the younger sonic nervous, but he believed that the fox could handle himself, and he didn't want to be a _total_ killjoy.

After running through a few loops and rocketing across several platforms, they were forced to a stop. Screeching to a halt, the two hedgehogs left skid marks on the grass. Tails landed on the ground next to them, breathing heavily. "Great, its a dead end," the adolescent hedgehog huffed.

"It's not supposed to be, though." his older self said, frowning. He inspected the two signposts standing at the cliff's edge. There were propellers on top of each of them, as well as various flags and windsocks, frozen in mid-air, used to determine the direction of the wind. He patted one of the posts with his hand. "These mark areas where the wind currents get crazy strong. Normally, the wind is so powerful that you can run on it if you're fast enough. But now..." He placed a tentative foot over the edge of the cliff. Just has he had expected- no wind. He sighed, he hated seeing WindyValley like this. It was such a fun place to run, but now it felt dead.

"Well, what do we do now?" asked the lighter blue hedgehog. He looked around. There was seemingly no way off the small island they were standing on, besides the bridge they ran in on. There was a red spring near the island's hedge, perfect for jumping off of and getting some air. Unfortunately, this spring was pointed straight up, leading to nothing but a trail of rings leading off into the distance. The older Sonic followed the younger's gaze and smiled. "That will do just fine," he said, bouncing on his feet. "Lil' me, you know how to light-speed dash?"

"Light-speed _what_?"

"I guess not. Okay then, time for a piggy-back ride. Tails, you fly close, okay? We're getting outta here, and we're getting outta here fast." He lifted the surprised twelve-year-old speedster onto his back and relaxed his quills so he wouldn't impale the kid by accident. He took a few steps back before running up to the spring, jumping, and landing square on its center. The spring sent the two Sonics high into the air, right towards the rings. The older one closed his eyes and focused on the golden circlets in the air. He reached out and touched one of them. It made a _bling_ noise as it disappeared and its energy got absorbed by the hedgehog. Just that small dose of energy was enough to allow him to instantly speed across the path of rings that was floating in mid-air in front of him. While he wasn't exactly traveling at the speed of light, he was moving with a velocity of several machs. Before the smaller hedgehog even knew what was happening, they had reached the end of the line of rings and landed safely on solid ground.

"... What just happened," he gasped, shakily climbing off of the older Sonic's back.

"Pretty cool move, huh? It comes in handy when you get in a pinch like that!" the taller 'hog said with a cocky grin. Tiny Tails flew over and landed a few feet away.

"That was TOTALLY WICKED!" he shouted, running over to the two Sonics. "You ran in, and then, SPROING! You're in the air, and then, and then you go WHOOOOSH, you take off and you're going all over the place and it was AWESOME!"

"Oh, stop it, you're making me blush," the adult quickster joked. "Come on you two, let's get going. We're almost at the village." Once again, he led the way as they started off down the bridges again. The two Sonics ran side-by-side as Tails flew on ahead, taking advantage of his un-obstructed flight path.

"So," the smaller hedgehog asked his future self, "how did you do that? That speed of light ring thing."

"You mean the light-speed dash?" the elder corrected. "It's not easy. I only used to be able to do it if I attached a special machine to my shoes. Eventually, I learned that I could use rings to give myself a boost of speed, and if there's a trail of rings, I can boost across them at high speeds. All it takes is a little concentration," he explained.

"Cool. I'm going to have to try that one of these days. Sounds like it would come in handy."

"Oh, definitely! You won't be able to do it for a few years yet, but it's never too early to start practicing!"

"Guys!" Lil' T shouted back at them, still flying ahead. "I can see the village!" He landed on the ground below him, and the two Sonics were soon standing at his side. The fox pointed to a large, nearby island. This island, unlike the others, had houses made of stone, windmills with the propellers frozen still, and lampposts that were still glowing bright.

The older Sonic nodded, silently giving the word for everyone to follow him across the wooden bridge connecting the two islands, and into the town. He went at a slow jog, going much slower than he would normally. The village, even with lights still lit, felt like a ghost town.

The place seemed even spookier when the trio started to walk around the village. There were still people walking about, frozen in mid-step. Two lovers were frozen in mid-kiss. A child who tripped on his shoelace, suspended in mid-fall.

"I think it's safe to assume that time has stopped here," Mini-Sonic whispered, waving his hand in front of the face of an unresponsive townsperson.

"This is really freaky," his double said, inspecting a fountain. The water shooting up and cascading down into the basin was completely still. The hedgehog dipped his finger in one of the small waterfalls. He could feel his glove and digit getting wet, but the water didn't splash. "Weird."

Lil' T was exploring closer to the end of the island, inspecting a group of gold rings that someone must have dropped. There were about fifty of the rings scattered around on the ground. The fox kit looked over the edge of the cliff to see that a large number of rings had spilled off the island. They were suspended in mid-air, floating instead of falling, as they should have been. It was truly fascinating to the young child, seeing as the physics of time-space were being altered right in front of him. Even as a fun-loving kid, Tails still had a passion for science.

Unfortunately, his curiosity got the best of him. He scooted closer and closer to the edge of the cliff to get a better look at the rings, not realizing that the ground beneath his feet wasn't particularly stable. A few pebbles crumbled away underneath his feet, and the ground suddenly shifted. Before the child had a chance to reach, the floor underneath him fell, and he tumbled down through the air.

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**Notes:** Dun dun dun! Oh no! What's going to happen to little Tails? Sorry for the very literal cliffhanger, but I just couldn't resist. I'd love to read any reviews you guys have for this chapter! See you all next week~


	6. Strange Energy

**Notes: **Okay yeah, so it wasn't much of a cliffhanger, throwing a kid who can fly off the edge of a cliff. So sue me. It does lead to some rather interesting consequences though! Thanks so much to everyone who has been reviewing and following and favoriting this story, it really does mean a lot. Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"SOOOONIIIIIC!"

The younger Sonic didn't hesitate to act. As soon as he heard his little brother's scream, he took off full speed to where the yell originated. The older hedgehog followed, close on his tail. When little Sonic reached the edge of the cliff where Tails fell, he did the first thing that came to his mind.

And that was to jump after him.

He leapt down into the clouds, curling up into a ball so that he could fall faster. He quickly caught up to Tails, and he uncurled himself to slow himself down. He grabbed a hold of the screaming child as a thought crossed his mind. _'What do I do now?'_

Back up on the surface of the island, the older hedgehog reached the edge too late to stop his past self from jumping. "Sonic! Tails!" he shouted over the edge. What was he supposed to do? Throw himself over the edge and hope for a miracle? There was no way they could survive that fall, and even if Tails tried to fly the both of them back up, there was very little chance of them actually making it.

All of a sudden, he heard the familiar _blingblingblingblingbling_ of someone grabbing rings at a breakneck pace. _'It can't be...'_ he thought, his eyes going wide. He looked over the edge of the cliff to see his past self, carrying Tiny Tails, and _light-speed dashing_ up the trail of suspended rings. They rocketed up the cliffside, and even got a little bit of airtime as the trail of rings ran out. They landed safely on the ground, collapsing onto their backs and breathing heavily.

"Oh, Chaos, are you two okay?" the older Sonic breathed with relief.

"I... I think so," Lil' T said, still a little dazed from falling off a cliff and then soaring back up it.

"Just... frazzled, is all," the young hedgehog replied. His older self helped to two kids get to their feet. Little Sonic massaged his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "I have no idea how I even did that... that whole light-dash thing. I just sort of... did it."

"That's what I was just about to ask you about," the twenty-year-old ran his hand through his quills and shook his head. "Man, you shouldn't be able to do that yet. _Especially_ not without any kind of help… Still, good job for your first try! That was pretty lucky, I have to say."

"Sorry about that, you guys," Tails said meekly. "I got really scared and I kinda forgot that I could fly for a second."

"It's okay, Tails. You're safe," the younger Sonic said. "Just… _Please_ don't do that again!" he pleaded. Lil' T wrapped his arms around his brother's midsection.

"Promise!"

"No, you gotta _pinky promise_." the hedgehog said, completely serious. He held up his hand and extended his pinky finger.

"Okay, pinky promise," the young vulpine said, entwining his little finger with Sonic's. "It doesn't get much more official than that, does it?"

"No, it certainly doesn't," the older of the Sonics said, slapping both of the kids on the back. "Now, come on. What do you say we keep looking around this place, see what we can find?"

"Like what?" the younger inquired. "There's nothing here but frozen things and frozen people, and there's not much we can do about it."

"Maybe, maybe not. The older Tails said that he was picking up some weird energy readings around here. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear about weird energy readings coming from anywhere, I head straight towards them with reckless abandon."

"I swear, you must have a death wish," Little Sonic sighed, shaking his head. "But hey, we're here, we might as well, I suppose. Any idea as to what these energy readings look like?"

"Mmmmm none. But I figure it's either a Chaos Emerald or some sort of mysterious monster thing. Maybe both, if we get lucky!"

"Yup. Definite death wish."

"Hey, it'll be _your_ death wish in eight years' time. Don't knock it!" the adult hedgehog laughed. "I'll radio Tails, see if he has any words of wisdom for us. Maybe he'll have an explanation as to why you can suddenly light speed dash, too."

"You really think so?"

"No, but we can hope, can't we?" The dark blue hedgehog winked as he rolled down the cuff of his glove to reveal the communicator watch on his wrist. He pressed a button on the side of it, causing the screen to blink to life. A small telephone symbol blinked until Tails picked up on the other line.

"Yo, Tails, you there?"

"Nope, sorry, no one here but us potatoes," the fox joked. "What's up?"

"We were wondering if you had any more leads for us? 'Cause, you know, no offense, but 'strange energy' isn't a heck of a lot to go off of."

"Um, all I can tell is that whatever it is should be on that island that you're on now. Is that the town?"

"Yep. It's like someone hit the pause button on this joint, even the people are frozen in place. It's pretty freaky."

"Yeah, that's what I suspected," Tails sighed. "Any idea how this happened? Is there any sort of clue lying around?"

"Negatory, good buddy," the older hedgehog answered. "I'll tell you something, though. Lil' me just light speed dashed."

"... What?"

"That's what _I_ said."

"But- but he shouldn't be able to do that for another few years, at least!"

"That's what _he_ said," exclaimed the smaller of the speedsters. "What's even going on? The stuff I'm doing now should be matching up with the stuff you've done in the past, right?" he asked, somewhat nervously. There was a pause.

"In theory, yes," Tails said. "I'll look into the matter. Hopefully I'll have an explanation when you guys get back, but I need some time to think about this."

"Okay, sounds good. Thanks, Tails," said the older Sonic. "Anything else you wanna add before we go?"

"Yeah. I would try not to spend _too_ much time in WindyValley if I were you. If time there is frozen, I don't know what might happen to you guys. I don't want you guys to get frozen like that, too."

"Wait wait, that's a _thing_ that can _happen?!_ Why did no one tell me about this?" Mini-Sonic practically shouted.

"I never said that it's a thing that can happen! I'm just saying, you never know! It's not like any of us know what we're doing when it comes to time travel, anyway. Just be careful," said Tails.

"Yes mother," the elder Sonic said snarkily. "I'll let you know when we find that energy-whatsit."

"Good. Tails out," Tails said, hanging up. The older Sonic rolled the cuff on his glove back to the way he liked it.

"Well, where do we start looking?" he asked.

"Wouldn't it be faster if we all split up?" asked Tiny Tails innocently.

"Sorry kiddo, we're not about to let you run off on your own again. It's too risky. You go with lil' me, alright?"

"Yeah, but can we trust _you_ on your own?" Little Sonic joked.

"Hey, you're making fun of yourself again. Don't you just _love_ how that works?" the elder retorted.

"Don't forget, you _used_ to make fun of yourself!"

"... Man, I'm good. Anyways, Lil' T does have a point. Let's split up. If we can't find anything in a half hour, we meet up back here, at the fountain. Sound good?" the older Sonic asked. The other two nodded in confirmation. "Cool. I'll head back this way. If you get into any kind of trouble, just holler!" he said. He turned on his heel and started jogging back towards the entrance of the town. He was going to do a careful sweep from the bridge they entered on back towards the fountain. And the best way to do that was via the rooftops.

"I guess we're going this way then!" Tiny Tails said, dragging his brother in the opposite direction.

"I wish we knew what we were looking for..." the preteen huffed. It was one thing to go on a scavenger hunt through an eerily quiet town filled with people who weren't moving. It was another thing entirely to be doing all that, and to have no idea what it is you're looking for.

"Well, older big brother said we should look for a Chaos Emerald or a monster, right? We can find the monster if we hear monster noises nearby, so that means we can focus harder on finding the Emerald, because Chaos Emeralds don't make monster noises," Lil' T reasoned.

"Nice theory there, lil' bro," Sonic said, a little bit of worry lacing itself into his voice. "But what if the monster is sneaky? What then?"

"Then... one of us keeps watch while the other one looks! It doesn't always work on TV, but Knuckles says you shouldn't always trust what you see on TV, so I think we'll be okay."

"I hope you're right, buddy. I hope you're right." The two walked into an alleyway, getting off the main streets. It was unlikely for a Chaos Emerald to be out in the big streets, in plain sight. Those things always had to be hidden in the most annoying-to-reach spots. Namely, at the ends of long obstacle courses set up by nature. The Emeralds also liked to make their home in the Special Zone, a tripped up dimension filled with wild colors, altered gravity, and just general craziness.

Mini-Sonic couldn't help but look up once they entered the alleyway. Tails had gotten him somewhat paranoid with all that monster talk. Now, he was convinced that something was going to drop down on him at any moment, and drag him away silently, leaving Tails all alone. _'Enjoy your future, Sonic, they said. It's gonna be great, they said! Time freezing a whole geographic area like this doesn't sound like my definition of great.'_

Meanwhile, the older Sonic was perched high up on the bell tower of a church. The bells were still stuck in the air, about to swing, but no sound came from them. Sonic sighed. He never knew WindyValley could ever get this _depressing._

"I guess that's what happens when time stops," he said, looking around at the village from above. "Things just stop happening, and everything just becomes sad." He jumped down from the bell tower, having spotted nothing of interest. He jumped across a few rooftops, taking care to be quiet. He didn't care that the people living inside the houses couldn't hear him. He felt inconsiderate just clomping across their rooftops considering their current condition.

_'But besides that... Tails must have been right about what he said this morning. Little me and Lil' T are better at that video game than we were, and now mini-blue learns how to light speed dash? Things are happening too fast for them. Maybe something in the time stream got messed up with the whole Time Eater fiasco? That would certainly explain why Windy Valley had been paused. If things are happening too soon for the younger versions of Tails and I, are we going to start being affected by this, too? Will things start to slow _down_ for us?'_ The hedgehog sighed. He was thinking too hard about this. He never used to think about things this much- he would just _do._ _'Ugh, don't tell me I'm over-thinking things and not acting like myself because of all this timey-wimey stuff. Because if I am, then I am through with time travel forever. We fix this mess, and BOOM. I am off time travel for the rest of my days.'_

He ran up the side of a windmill and stood atop its roof. Maybe he could spot something out of the ordinary if he had a different vantage point? He peered out over the village, looking for anything that might cause a flux in energy that would set off Tails' sensors. Looking around, he didn't spot any weird god-monsters or anything. Good, he had had enough of beating up corrupt and evil god-monsters in his time. Eggman really needed to back away from that whole 'summoning powerful gods to do his dirty work' thing. It had gotten old after he did it the first time.

_'Speaking of which, where _is_ Eggman, anyway? I think we left him in that white limbo-world after we beat up the Time Eater... but that dude's persistent. He always manages to find a way to come back- wait a second, what is that?"_ Sonic thought as his eyes suddenly picked up on a faint, green glow. _'Well, I think that might qualify as out of the ordinary,'_ he thought satisfactorily. He hopped down from his perch and took off sprinting towards the light. He had no desire to remain in WindyValley any longer than he had to.

In the meantime, the time travelers' search was coming up dry. Little Sonic and Lil' T had found no signs of anything, except evidence that someone in Windy Valley had gotten very, very drunk the night before, as they made a mess of the side of the local bar by puking on the sidewalk next to it. For his little bro's well being, the hedgehog led him away from that area of town. Tails was still too young to learn about the horrors of drinking.

"Well, we've searched almost everywhere we can search," the preteen said, glancing around at his surroundings. "And there has been neither hide nor hair of a monster, and no evidence of a Chaos Emerald anywhere near here!"

Just as the words escaped his mouth, he could feel something tug at his heart. Some unseen force, foreign to most others, yet all too familiar to the hedgehog. That warm, pulsating, tugging feeling was the same way he felt whenever a Chaos Emerald was close by. Those were just the kind of feelings you get when you're adept at tapping into the Emerald's energies. They leave their mark on you.

"Tails, wait, hold up a sec," Sonic said, grabbing Tails by the shoulder so that he would stop. He closed his eyes and listened to his heartbeat, trying to feel where the gentle tug was pulling from. It was a Chaos Emerald close by, he was positive. "I can feel an Emerald near here, kiddo. I'm not sure where, exactly, but-"

"It wouldn't happen to be the source of all that bright, green light coming from over there, would it?" Tails asked, pointing a little ways down the street, wearing an all-knowing smile on his face.

"Bro, you are a life-saver. Come on!" the twelve-year-old hedgehog said excitedly. Maybe now they could get out of this creepy place.

The two raced up the street, turning down the side street that the mysterious glow was coming from. Sonic could feel the pulsating tug in his chest grow in power with each step he took. It didn't take much time for them to discover the gem, perched high atop an old windmill. All it took was a single nod from Sonic to have his young friend do his thing and fly up towards the top of the windmill. He carefully pried it out of its wedged-in location, and then flew it back down to Sonic.

The hedgehog accepted the Emerald from Tails, and held the green gem in his hands. He pressed it up to its chest to ensure it was the real deal. The Emerald itself seemed to thump in time with his heart, and he could feel the warmth and unbridled potential energy coursing through his veins. Oh yeah, this sucker was the real deal alright.

"Hey, Sonic? Do you hear something?" Tiny Tails asked, his ears pricking up as he listened for something in the distance. The hedgehog closed his eyes and concentrated, being able to faintly make out a noise coming from the other side of town.

"Do you think older-me ran into trouble?" he asked, tucking the Chaos Emerald into his spines. It would be safe there.

"The only way I know to find out is to check," Lil' T replied. The two friends instantly took off towards the other side of town, where the more grown-up incarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog was busy battling-you guessed it- a monster.

The beast was about five feet tall, a dark purple, and seemingly comprised of goo, scales, and smoke. There were little specks of gold dotting its flesh, and it had four arms which it swung about dangerously. These arms were large and powerful, and possessed sharp claws on the ends of their fingers. The legs of the creature were squat and not very powerful-looking, but it made up for this by having a strong tail which it could easily knock a person down with. Its mouth was huge, and took up most of its face. Its eyes were small and black, and it had a case of halitosis that you had to smell to believe.

Sonic jumped backwards, dodging a powerful swing of one of the monster's arms. "Man, why couldn't you have been a Chaos Emerald?!" he shouted in frustration. He had to draw this fight out into the open. Fighting in an alleyway wasn't his cup of tea, and the creature seemed to have the advantage. Even though it was large, it had plenty of walls to knock Sonic up against. And Sonic didn't enjoy getting slammed into the walls by mysterious beasts. The hedgehog turned, curled into a ball, and quickly spindashed out of the narrow side street and out to the main street. He stood up in the center of the street and motioned for the monster to 'come and get some.' The creature smiled a huge, toothy smile. It was more than happy to oblige. With a speed that Sonic didn't expect the monster to possess, the creature ran into Sonic and sent him careening into a building on the other end of the street. He impacted hard with the solid stone, creating a small dent in the wall. He groaned softly as he fell to his feet and had trouble standing up straight.

"I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be able to move like that. Congratulations, you hit me! It's not going to happen again, let me just tell you that now," the hedgehog said cockily. The monster seemed to take this as a personal challenge, and ran at Sonic at full speed again. The hedgehog simply jumped over him like he was playing a game of leapfrog. "You're too slow!" he taunted, sticking his tongue out at the beast and making a ridiculous face at it. The monster realized that his previous tactic of charging head-first towards his target wasn't working so well. He decided to switch up his attack pattern a little bit by punching the ground with its massive fists until the floor broke apart, and then picking up and throwing large chunks of rock and ground at Sonic. "Yipe!" the hedgehog yelped as a boulder flew right over his head. _'This is tricky... With his four arms, it's going to be hard to get up close to him without turning into hamburger meat. And now, he's throwing projectiles at me too, to make me keep even _more_ distance. I need to end this fast before this fight gets out of hand,'_ he thought with a scowl. He ran circles around the beast at high speeds, searching for a possible weak spot. The only one he could maybe make work would be the back. He could sneak around and end the fight with a few good hits. He cracked his knuckles and stretched out his legs. This was going to be interesting.

Sonic spindashed into the ground, beginning to rapidly dig a tunnel. Now he just had to hope that the monster stayed in the same place so that he could land a hit without missing.

Unfortunately, the creature caught on to his plan pretty quickly, and moved aside. When Sonic burrowed next to him and leapt up out of the ground, the monster grabbed Sonic with its claws. The hedgehog suffered a gash across the chest from dealing with the beast, and began bleeding from his midsection.

The monster threw Sonic into a wall again- strange that most purple creatures with four arms seemed to be surprisingly lacking in the imagination department when it came to their attacks- and left another crack in the surface of the building. Sonic was starting to hurt now, and he was getting sick and tired of being thrown into things. He pried himself loose from the wall and shook the debris and pebbles from his quills.

_'Okay, this fight has gone on long enough,'_ he thought, feeling rather annoyed at this point. He clutched his chest in an attempt to stop his bleeding. The cut was deeper than he would have liked. _'I need to finish this before I end up losing too much blood. What I need is some sort of strategy.'_ He scanned his environment, looking for something he could use against the creature. He grinned. _'That'll work just fine.'_ He hadn't just found something- he had found some_one_.

The other Sonic and Tails were running in to his left. Perfect. All the wounded hedgehog had to do was provide a distraction, and they could get a few hits against the enraged creature.

"Yo, ugly! Try this on for size!" he shouted, tucking into a ball and revving himself up. He spin-dashed straight towards the monster's feet, only to get swatted away by one of its massive arms. Sonic flew back and tumbled across the ground, earning himself a few more scratches and bruises. The monster stalked closer to the fallen speedster. It was only a few feet away from Sonic when something blue and spiny collided with the side of its head. It toppled to the ground, his skull likely having been bashed in by the force of the impact.

"And stay down," the younger Sonic said, smiling over the beast triumphantly. He turned to face his older self, still on the ground, as Lil' T landed a few feet away. Little Sonic frowned when he was the blood all over his older self's chest and hands. "I can't take you anywhere, can I?" he said, helping the injured hedgehog to his feet.

"Heh, what took you so long?" he asked, cringing. With the adrenaline of battle starting to fade, his wounds were starting to have more of an effect on him.

"Sorry. We were busy nabbing this bad boy." the younger Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out the bright green Chaos Emerald. "One down, six to go."

"Whoa. Nice work, you two!"

"Thanks. Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I should be fine. Worst case scenario is that I need to get a few stitches to close this thing up," the darker blue hedgehog said, pointing to the gash in his chest. "I'm more concerned about what that _thing_ was." He held a hand on his midriff to slow the bleeding as he glanced over at the defeated creature. Lil' T walked over to it cautiously, being careful not to get too close to it.

"It looks a little bit like the Time Eater, don't you think? The colors are the same, and it looks like it's made of the same stuff," the vulpine pointed out.

"Something tells me this isn't just a crazy coincidence. We need to get back to the workshop," the older Sonic said. He climbed to his feet with a bit of difficulty.

"And just how are we going to go back to the workshop? You can barely stand, forget about running through loops and corkscrews," his younger incarnation protested, tapping his foot. "You'll bleed out before we get there."

Macro-Sonic sighed. The kid was right- he was okay for now, but he was afraid to run too much in fear of opening his chest wound even wider. If only they could just teleport back home...

"Wait. Give me the Emerald, I have an idea," he said, his eyes lighting up with inspiration. Little Sonic handed the gem over, curious as to what his older self was up to. "Okay kids, hold on tight. Keep all hands, feet, and tails inside the ride at all times, 'cause we're going home."

The young sonic and Tails looked at each other, shrugged, and grabbed a hold of the older hedgehog. Sonic focused on the Emerald in his hands, tapping into its powerful energy.

"_Chaos... Control!_" he shouted, and everything turned white.

* * *

**Notes: **Wow Sonic, getting injured in the first big fight of the fic? How unprofessional. Maybe you'll do better next time. And Mini-Sonic, why can you light speed dash? Things are starting to get messed up around here, so tune in next week to see what goes wrong next!


	7. Rest and Relaxation?

**Notes: **That last chapter was pretty action packed, huh? Huh? Well, this one's not. But I had fun writing it and I think it has its good parts :) As always, thanks for the new follows & such! Always appreciated.

* * *

The three suddenly found themselves outside the workshop, back in the Mystic Ruins. The oldest of the trio collapsed onto one knee and coughed.

"Okay, well that was fun," he said hoarsely.

"What the...? How did we get here?" Little Sonic asked, looking around in confusion. "We were just in WindyValley a second ago!"

"It's called Chaos Control," the older hedgehog said, struggling to his feet. "If you figure out how to pull _that_ off before you're supposed to, _that_ would be something. Now, let's head inside before I bleed to death." He pushed the front door open with his shoulder and dragged his feet inside.

"Older me, we're back!" Tiny Tails shouted into the nearly-empty house. The older fox was likely located in his lab in the basement. Sonic started towards the basement door when he was stopped by his past-self.

"Oh no you don't. You are going to sit down, _I _am going to go get the older Tails, and we will bandage you up. I'm not about to let you fall down the stairs for no reason, you hear?" He turned the injured twenty-year-old around and sat him down in one of the armchairs in the living room.

"Look, all I'm going to do is bleed all over the chair! Besides, I think I should be able to go down some stairs without dying," the adult protested, trying to get up. Mini-Sonic groaned in frustration.

"Ugh, you're even more impatient than I am! Just sit still for _five seconds._ Can you do that? Just _sit._" He held his hands up and backed away slowly, ready to push the battle-scarred hedgehog back into the chair if he tried to stand up again. Without taking his eyes off of his future-self, he said, "Tails, stay here with him. I'm going to go get the other Tails." He pointed at his own eyes, and the to the eyes of his older self, as if to say, _I'm watching you._ He then walked out of the room and ran down the basement steps.

The underground lab was large, to say the least. The place was cluttered with various pieces of equipment and machinery. The air was filled with a number of beeping and whirring noises. The young hedgehog found Tails seated in a swiveling office chair in front of a large, powerful-looking computer.

"Whoa. Rad setup," Sonic breathed. He shook his head, trying to focus on the task at hand. "Yo, Tails! We've got a situation!"

Tails turned around to face him, a surprised look on his face. "Oh, you're back already? That was quick."

"Yeah, now come on! Older-me is hurt." Sonic motioned with his hands for the fox to get up and follow him. Tails stood up with a frown.

"I'll go grab the first-aid stuff," he said. He sighed slightly, as Sonic hurting himself was nothing new. "What is it, a sprained ankle?"

"Try a big ol' gash across his chest," the hedgehog said as Tails rummaged around his lab for the medical supplies. The fox always made sure to keep some on hand, just in case. He opened up a cabinet stocked with bandages and various medications. He fished out some cloth bandages, cotton, and disinfectant.

"Okay, let's go survey the damage," Tails said, leading the way back up the stairs.

Upon entering the living room, the older Tails and younger Sonic both rolled their eyes. Lil' T was sitting on the older hedgehog's lap, struggling to keep him still. The twenty-year-old just could not stop fidgeting, even with a hole in his chest.

"Alright, alright, that's enough, you two! Honestly…" the teenage fox said, lifting his younger persona up off of Sonic's lap and setting the tot down on the ground. He took a look at his older brother's wound and furrowed his brow.

"I thought it would bleeding more. That's a pretty big cut," he said, inspecting Sonic's chest. The hedgehog shrugged.

"It was bleeding like crazy before. I dunno why it stopped all of a sudden." He ran his finger along the edge of the cut. It might have stopped bleeding, but it still hurt like mad. The blood that was still on his chest stained his already reddened gloves. He frowned. He was probably going to have to throw the gloves away- there was no saving them now.

"We're going to have to have that stitched up," Tails said, bringing Sonic back to reality. "Even if it's not gushing blood anymore, I need to make sure it closes up correctly."

Sonic nodded. "Good point. Man, this is probably going to leave a heck of a scar…"

Tails looked down at the two or three cotton balls in his hand. He didn't expect the gash to be this bad, or that Sonic would have so much blood on him. This was going to be a heck of a project, for sure. "I can clean you up faster downstairs, in the lab," the fox said with his hands at his hips. "Can you stand up?"

"Psh, no problem!" Sonic said with a smile that said, _look who you're talking to, kid._ He leaned forward to get out of the chair, and a harsh, searing pain shot through his chest. He fought the instinct to cry out, instead gritting his teeth and scooting gently forward until he was sitting on the edge of the chair. He eased himself onto his feet from there, his legs shaking. "See? No problem!"

His legs suddenly gave out and collapsed underneath him. He would have fallen to the floor if his past-self and Tails hadn't been there to catch him. "You were saying?" his younger self said, raising an eyeridge.

"Oh, shut up," the older hedgehog coughed. "Man, I haven't gotten this hurt in a while, huh?" Tails hooked his arm around his brother and helped get him to his feet.

"Yeah, I guess it has been a while. C'mon, I'll help you," the vulpine said. Sonic nodded and the two began to walk. Staying true to his stubborn nature, Sonic tried as hard as he could to not rely too much on Tails' assistance.

"Older me?" Lil' T piped up. "S'there anything Sonic and I can do to help?"

The older Tails thought for a second, trying to come up with something for the kids to do without getting in the way.

"How about you make some lunch?" the injured hedgehog suggested. "I'm starved."

As if on cue, Lil' T's stomach growled. "Good idea," he said, rubbing his hand on his gut. A cheeky smile graced his face. "Sonic? I want mac and cheese."

"Oh, that sounds good. I want some too," the older fox said, licking his lips. "I haven't eaten since breakfast... I got too distracted in the lab!"

"Oh my gosh, yes. I think we have mac and cheese in the cupboard next to the sink," the older Sonic said. "You think you can handle it, kiddo?"

"You bet I can! I'm gonna make the bestest lunch ever!" he said, getting excited. He jumped into the air and flew off into the kitchen, with the younger incarnation of Sonic following close behind.

"Tails, you're not old enough to work a stove on your own, are you crazy...!" he called after his little brother. The older two siblings couldn't help but laugh.

"You sure that was a good idea, letting them loose in the kitchen like that?" the older fox whispered. Sonic half-shrugged.

"Whatever keeps them busy. Besides, past-me can handle it. I trust him. Now c'mon, let's go downstairs before gravity drags me there."

Working together, the two slowly but surely got down the stairs and entered the lab in the basement. Tails quickly got to work, clearing off a table for Sonic to lie down on. The hedgehog eased himself onto it, trying not to move his torso around too much. He didn't want to risk starting to bleed again.

Tails pulled a couple of towels out of the first aid cabinet and wet them in the small sink in the corner. "I'm going to have to clean up some of that blood before I can even start to look at that cut, never mind check and see if you bruised any ribs," he said, wringing out some of the excess water from the towels. He took the damp cloths over to Sonic, who had finally settled.

"Go for it," the blue one said with a nod. Tails proceeded to press one of the towels against Sonic's chest, causing the hedgehog to cringe.

"So, how did this happen anyway? I thought everything in WindyValley was frozen in time," Tails asked.

"Yeah, well, but not _everything_ was standing still. There was this weird creature thing- it was big, had four arms, and it looked kind of like the Time Eater- and we got into a bit of a scuffle," he said, trying not to wince at Tails' pokes and prods.

"Are you serious?" Tails asked, surprised. "Do you think this whole time travel mess is because of the Time Eater? That maybe it's still around?"

"I'm not really sure. All I know is, that thing wasn't your typical underworld henchman. It was pretty tough. I kept getting knocked into walls and thrown into the dirt. It was so embarrassing," he chuckled. "Ow! Tails, will you stop jabbing me already?"

"I'm barely touching you, Sonic! You must have bruised some ribs from all those times you got tossed into buildings," Tails said sarcastically.

"Oh, can it," Sonic smiled. "When did you get so sarcastic?"

"Not sure. Makes sense though, I mean, look who raised me."

"Please, I didn't raise you. I was just a kid myself when I found you. If anything, we probably raised each other."

"I guess you have a point. I- whoa, that's weird."

"Wait, what's weird?" Sonic craned his neck up so he could look at his chest.

"Look at this," Tails pointed to the cut. "It's not an open wound anymore. It's already scarred up."

"What?"

"Here, check it out for yourself," Tails said. Sonic eased himself up until he was looking down at his torso. There was indeed a large scar running across his chest and stomach- as if it had healed up a long time ago. He ran a finger across it. It was hot; not hot enough so that it burned, but it was definitely warmer than the rest of him. He frowned.

"How'd this thing heal up so fast? It was bleeding out of control back in WindyValley," he said, sitting up. He gritted his teeth as he did so. It sure didn't _feel_ like his cut had closed up.

"I'm not sure," Tails said. "The only thing I can think of that could do this would be a Chaos Emerald."

"Huh… You don't say," Sonic said, pulling the green gem out from his quills. "How do you think we got back here so fast, eh?"

"Whoa, neat," Tails said, admiring the jewel. "I guess you must have healed yourself by accident when you used Chaos Control."

"Guess so." The hedgehog tossed the emerald in the air and caught it again. He stared at it, trying to see inside its chaos-filled depths. "Something about this still seems off, though. I've never been able to use the Emeralds to heal myself before."  
"Well, the younger-you never used the light-speed dash before, and he did _that_ for the first time today." Tails took the now-crimson towels to the sink to rinse all of the blood out of them. Sonic nodded, putting the Emerald away and taking his gloves off. The dried blood on them crackled as he did so.

"Speaking of that, what do you think happened? He shouldn't have been able to use the light-speed dash yet."

"And he did it all on his own?" Tails asked, wringing out one of the towels. It was still a little pink, but that was as good as it was going to get. He moved on to the next towel. "Didn't you need upgrades to your sneakers to be able to light speed dash at first?"

"Yeah, I needed help, but he just did it all by himself. Maybe it was because Lil' T was in danger because he fell off this cliff, and lil' Me's instincts were kicked into high gear, but... he shouldn't have been able to pull it off. I'm super glad that he did, of course, but that's not the point. The point is that _he_ did it before _I _did. Isn't there a rule against that? What's it called, a parabox?"

"You mean paradox?"

"Yeah, that's it, paradox. Yeah. Our timelines aren't matching up, and I don't like that. It's concerning, to say the least."

"Agreed. Your past should sync up with his future. I don't know how this happened, but it's a lot like when they were playing video games yesterday. Remember, they got farther than we were able to back then?"

"Mmhmm, I remember. Do you think that these paradoxes are what caused the whole fiasco with WindyValley? Or are they an effect of something else?" Sonic said thoughtfully.

"I'm not entirely sure, but that is an _excellent_ question. Unusually insightful for you," Tails said, a little bit surprised that Sonic had come up with that.

"I have my moments," the hedgehog said, looking down nonchalantly at his fingernails, inspecting them.

"I know you do," Tails smiled. "Anyway, now that I know that the Time Eater has something to do with this, I might be able to make some headway in figuring this whole mess out. You did say that the creature you fought looked like the Time Eater, right?"

"Well, it was pretty big, dark purple with bits of gold in it, really angry, and it looked like it was made out of the same general stuff. Like... like its body was made of solid smoke or something. So yeah, I'd say it was pretty similar to the Time Eater. How will that help, though?"

"I have the Time Eater's energy signature copied onto my Miles Electric from when we fought him yesterday. With this data, I can run a search for him all over Mobius. That'll let me see if he's back somehow, or if there are just little mini versions of him running around, or what. It also might let me get a closer look at how its time manipulation powers work. I was meaning to look into that just out of curiosity, actually," Tails said, scratching the back of his head.

"Hey!" Little Sonic said, popping his head into the lab. "Where do you guys keep the butter?"

"Fridge door, top shelf," Tails answered.

"Thanks!" the young hedgehog said, disappearing back into the kitchen again.

"Welcome!" Tails shouted. He turned back to his older brother. "Anyways, we should probably have your chest wrapped up. Don't wanna scare the younger-me with your 'ultra manly battle scars.'" He put finger quotes around that last bit.

"I swear, you are having too much fun with this," Sonic laughed gently, as to not hurt himself further. "Speaking of the kids, though, I wonder how they're doing up there?"

"Alright, we _finally_ found everything we need." The younger Sonic sighed and leaned against the fridge. "Man, I'm already tired."

"But Soooniiic," Lil' T said, "you _can't_ be tired yet 'cause we haven't _done_ anything!"

"Maybe you've forgotten the whole WindyValley thing only happened, what, ten minutes ago?" He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "What do the instructions on the box say?"

"Ummm," the young fox said, turning the box of macaroni over in his hands until he found the directions. "It says we gotta fill a pot three-quarters full of water and boil it."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Sonic said, bringing the pot he and Tails had picked out over to the sink. All he had to do was fill it with water and take it over to the stove. How hard could it be?

Apparently, very hard. The hedgehog had underestimated the weight of the water, and had a hard time even getting the pot out of the sink. In the process of bringing it to the stove, he spilled most of the water onto the floor. "Son of a…" he breathed, looking back at the virtual lake he had left in the middle of the kitchen floor. He reached for the roll of paper towels on the counter. "Tails, I'll clean this mess up, you turn on the stove so the water'll boil."

"Right!" the child nodded, twisting the knob and turning the burner on. Miraculously, the water that was still in the pot began to heat up without incident, but it wasn't long before the fox grew impatient.

"Sonic, how can you tell if the water's boiling?"

"It's boiling when the top gets really bubbly, and you can see steam coming from it," Sonic replied, still cleaning the water up. "While that's going, d'you think you could measure out the milk and butter? We'll have to do that eventually."

The child nodded, grabbing a butter knife and opening up a fresh stick of butter. He looked at the box of macaroni. The directions said 3 tablespoons, but… he didn't have a spoon with him. He couldn't remember where they were, and he didn't want to bother Sonic anymore. So he had to guess how much butter was the right amount. It couldn't make that much of a difference, really. The measuring cup was easy to use, though, so could figure out how much milk to pour in, no problem. The problem was getting all the milk _in_ the cup.

"Tails! Really? I just finished cleaning up!" Sonic moaned, reaching for more paper towels.

"I'm real sorry, Sonic. I didn't mean it, honest- oh, the water's boiling!" Lil' T said. In all honesty, the water was just starting to bubble- it was no where near a full boil.

"Alright, put the macaroni in. I'll clean up all this milk," the hedgehog sighed, beginning to wipe up the mess. Tails picked up the mac and cheese box and dumped its contents into the pot- including the packet of cheese powder. Oops. Oh well, it had to go in the water at some point, didn't it? And besides, it was too hot to pull out now.

"There. Now we just need to wait for the macaroni to cook, I think," Sonic said, cleaning up the rest of the milk. He picked up the armful of soaked paper towels he had used in the past few minutes and heaved them into the garbage. "That's it, next time we're making sandwiches."

"How do we know when it's done cooking?"

"I dunno, when it's done! You're asking me like I'm the pasta king or something." Sonic stood up and cracked his back. Tails glanced into the pot.

"S'it done now?"

"No."

"How do you know?"

"Because it's only been 45 seconds, Tails. This stuff takes a little bit to cook. Like, ten minutes or so."

"But Sooooniiiic, I want to eat it now! I'm hungry!"

Sonic held his face in his hands. And Knuckles thought _he_ was impatient. If only the echidna were here looking after his older self and Tails… He sighed. "I'm gonna go lie down on the couch. You can handle watching the pot, can't you, squirt?"

"You betcha!" Lil' T said with a smile. The hedgehog gave him a tired thumbs up before walking into the living room and collapsing onto the couch. Making sure his big bro wasn't paying attention, Tails looked into the pot. There was barely enough water to coat all of the macaroni, and the liquid was still hardly bubbling. He couldn't see the packet of cheese; it must have sank to the bottom. He sure hoped it would turn out okay.

Five minutes later, Sonic was up off the couch and waving a towel above the pot, trying to dissipate the smoke so the smoke alarm would shut off. What little water had been in the pot had evaporated, leaving everything else to just cook in the heat of the burner. The packet of cheese and the uncooked macaroni had started to smolder, producing quite a bit of smoke. The whole floor started to smell like burnt cheese.

"You had one job, Tails," the hedgehog said, fanning the smoke away from the detector mounted on the ceiling. "_One. Job._"

"How many times to I have to say I'm sorry?!" the kit exclaimed, using his twin namesakes as a fan. Two sets of footsteps could be heard ascending the basement stairs, the older incarnations of the two kids having heard the smoke alarm loud and clear. The older Tails entered the kitchen first.

He immediately sprung into action, turning off the stove and helping to de-smoke the room. With the three of them working together, the kitchen was quickly smoke-free. It still smelled a lot like burnt food, though.

"Eugh! Maybe leaving you two in charge of lunch wasn't the best idea after all," the elder Sonic said as he hobbled into the room, waving a hand in front of his nose to get the stench away from his face. He joined the others as they all looked disdainfully into the pot of would-be mac and cheese. The macaroni was all burnt, and there was a shriveled up, charred packet of what was probably the cheese dust, seeing as there were flecks of orange all throughout the pot and the rest of the kitchen.

"Well, I think we all learned a very important lesson here today," Lil' T said in a small voice.

"That repairing a plane and cooking are two different things entirely?" his older self questioned.

"Precicely."

"What do we do now?" the twelve-year-old hedgehog asked, scraping a gloved finger along the inside of the pot. "We sure as heck can't eat this."

The older Sonic stepped away from the stove and opened up the fridge. He pulled out some ham and cheese, and then reached above the fridge for a box of crackers. He set all this down on the kitchen table and took a seat. "Lunch is served," he said, opening up the box of crackers. The other three shrugged and sat down without comment.

As if on cue, Tails then picked up the television remote that was lying on the far end of the table and turned on the TV in the living room. There was some cheesy sci-fi movie on, which looked like it was about a giant crocodile fighting a half-shark half-octopus. They all stared at it for a minute and shrugged. It couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?

An hour later, they decided it was the corniest train wreck any of them had ever seen before in their lives.

"Okay guys, place your bets," the oldest in the room said, stuffing more ham-cheese-and-cracker sandwich into his mouth. "Sharktopus or Crocosaurus?"

"Sharktopus, all the way," his younger self said. "The thing's got the biting power of a shark, plus tentacles, plus spikes! It wins, hands-down."

"But Crocosaurus is a giant lizard!" Lil' T argued. "It has big teeth, and a tail that it can whack stuff with, and-"

"-and stubby little arms that won't be of any help to it when the horrible CGI that is Sharktopus wraps him up in his tentacley grip!" the older Sonic laughed. The two hedgehogs started chanting, "Sharktopus, Sharktopus, Sharktopus!"

"Yeah, yeah, wait, hold up," the elder of the two Tailses said, interrupting their cheer. "Everyone knows that the _scientists_ win in the end, because Sharktopus and Crocosaurus are just going to blow each other up in some horribly cheesy fashion."

"He makes a good point, you know," Sonic said, looking back towards his younger self. They shared a knowing look and both smiled.

"Sharktopus! Sharktopus! Sharktopus!" the chanted even louder, this time with Tiny Tails joining in. On-screen, the shark/octopus hybrid just impaled a tourist with its tentacle, and then man screamed and waved his arms in the goofiest way imaginable. Everyone in the workshop cheered.

"Wow, we are horrible, horrible people," Tails commented with a laugh.

"I cannot possibly side with these scientist morons!" Mini-Sonic exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air. "I honestly do not care about any of their problems. I'm just watching to see their humorous, over-dramatic deaths,"

"Speaking of which," the older Sonic said, turning to face the young fox kit seated at the other end of the table. "Lil' T, you probably shouldn't even be watching this. You're six, for crying out loud."

"This movie isn't even scary, though!" the young child protested. "It's all so silly and fake-looking. The blood looks like Kool-Aid. Look- seriously, look at that! That is seriously just ketchup smeared all over that guy's face!" he shouted, pointing at the screen.

Just then, Sharktopus strangled Crocosaurus with its tentacles and bit its head off. More cheering from the peanut gallery ensued.

That night, Tails insisted that Sonic sleep in his own bed, saying that he would take the couch for the time being. The twenty-year-old knew it would be useless to argue, and he was too tired to have a fight about where he would sleep anyways. So instead, he helped Tails with their couch's pull-out bed function, and then trudged upstairs with his younger self and Lil' T.

"Alright, here's where you guys are going to sleep," he said, leading them into Tails' bedroom. The older Sonic was still extremely sore around his middle, but he had already recovered enough so that he could walk again without any real difficulty.

Tails' room contained the bunk bed which had been assembled the day before. The room was filled with books and model planes, and there were various blueprints scattered around the floor. One of the walls had pictures of the fox and his friends throughout the years. All in all, it looked like one would expect Tails' bedroom to look like.

"This is _my room?"_ Tiny Tails asked, flying around the room with a look of wonder in his eyes.

"Calm down kiddo," the older hedgehog said, plucking the kid out of the air. "Don't want you to get all riled up before bedtime."

"I don't have a bedtime," the fox pouted. "Right, Sonic?" he said, glancing down at the smaller of the two hedgehogs.

"You nap so much during the day anyway, there's really not much point to you going to bed at a certain time every night," he shrugged. He hopped up to the top bunk and bounced a little bit as he landed on the bed.

"Hey, no fair! I wanted the top bunk!" Lil' T whined.

"Sorry there squirt, I called it yesterday. Remember? When we were playing video games?"

"No way, you didn't call nothin'!" the young fox pouted.

"Well," the adult Sonic said over-dramatically, "if no one wants to sleep in the bottom bunk, I guess we set it up for nothing." He huffed and sagged his shoulders.

Tiny Tails sighed. "Well, fine, when you put it that way..."

"No! No, I understand. We'll just uninstall the bottom bed again..."

"I said I would sleep in the bottom bunk! Gosh," Lil' T groaned. He looked up at the blue figure already sitting in the top bunk. "Sonic, you grow up to be such a drama queen."

"Hey, it worked though, didn't it?" the older one said, scooping the child up in his arms and depositing him on the bed. He tucked the toddler in to make sure he was comfy. "Wow, haven't tucked anyone in in years," he chuckled, being hit with waves of nostalgia.

"Older big brother?" the fox piped up.

"Hm?"

"Can you read me a bedtime story?" Tails asked, eyes sparkling.

"I don't think we have many storybooks around here, bucko," Sonic said, rubbing the kid's head.

"Make up a story, then! Pleeeeaaaassseeee?" he asked, making the most adorable puppy-dog face Sonic had seen in years. The hedgehog sighed and massaged his closed eyes.

"Fine, you adorable little pain in the butt, you. I'll tell you a story," he said, sitting down at the foot of the bed. "Lil' me, any suggestions?"

"Don't care," the preteen mumbled.

"Thanks for the help there, kid." Sonic wracked his mind for a story to tell. He never was good at making up stories. He was going to have to tell one that he already knew. A light went on in his head, and he smiled.

"How about I tell you about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?"

Twenty minutes later, Sonic had gotten halfway through his story, and Lil' T was fast asleep. Even Sonic's younger persona had dozed off with a smile on his face. The older hedgehog yawned. He should get himself to bed, too. He eased himself up off the foot of the bed, careful to not bend his torso too much. He shut off the lights in the kids' room and shut the door behind him as he left. He walked across the hall to his own room, not bothering to turn on the light once he got inside. He slipped his trademark red sneakers off his feet and kicked them into the corner. He padded across the room in his socks and laid himself down on his bed. He was asleep before he even got under the covers.

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**Notes: **Aww, how precious. I don't think Lil' T could have physically messed up that mac and cheese any more than he did, the little scamp. If you liked this chapter, please leave a review! Things are going to get even wackier next week, so stay tuned, dudes ;D


	8. Christmas in June

**Notes: **Not much to say this week, I need to upload this quick so I can get back to writing my English essay (see how much I love you guys?). Thanks to anyone who faved, followed, or reviewed the story this week! It really means a lot.

* * *

Sonic woke up the next morning shivering. He instinctively dove under his sheets, pulling them up over his head, and curled up as best he could with his bandaged up chest. _'Man, why is it so cold? It's practically the end of June!'_ he thought in frustration. He rubbed his hands over his arms rapidly, trying to warm himself up. He could feel the goosebumps crawling over his skin as he did so. He was going to have to get up and turn on the heat so that everyone in the house wouldn't freeze. He reluctantly crawled out of bed, quickly found a pair of gloves lying on the floor, and shoved them onto his cold hands. He went out into the hall and fiddled around with the thermostat, turning the temperature up. It had already been set at 68 degrees, so why was it so cold?

It would take a little while for the heat to kick in, so for the moment, Sonic was still chilly. He went back into his bedroom and grabbed a blanket off the foot of his bed. Wrapping the blanket around his shoulders, he felt a little bit better.

He thought he heard some hushed, yet excited conversation coming from inside Tails' bedroom. _'I wonder what Lil' Blue and _Lil' T_ are so happy about?'_

He knocked on the door to their bedroom, which was promptly answered by his younger self. "What's going on in here?" the elder asked, poking his head inside the room with a grin.

"Did you look out a window this morning?"

"Um... No?"

"Then come look!" Lil' T said, grabbing the older hedgehog's hand and dragging him towards the window. What Sonic saw made his jaw drop.

"No way... It's... It's…"

"It's _snowing!_" the young fox squealed with excitement. Indeed, the air outside was filled with swirling bits of white. The trees, not having shed their leaves, were just huge masses of snow supported by tree trunks. It must have been snowing for quite some time, as the snow on the ground looked to be at least six inches deep already, maybe more.

"Well, that explains why it's so cold," Sonic said quietly. His breath condensed on the glass of the window, fogging it up.

"Isn't it cool?" Lil' T said, pressing his hands up against the window and looking outward at the winter wonderland.

Sonic wasn't quite sure how to respond. The responsible older-brother part of him was saying no, that those tree branches wouldn't be able to hold the weight of all that snow for long, they wouldn't be able to clear away any of the snow because Tails didn't keep any shovels around the workshop, that there wasn't much food in the house to begin with, and now there were four mouths that needed feeding and no way to get to the grocery store.

The thrill-seeking part of him, on the other hand, was saying that this was awesome! What better way to relax after a day of Emerald hunting than to go sledding and snowboarding and to curl up by the fire with a hot drink in your hand? He could do without the cold, of course, but the snow definitely had its perks, too.

"Cool or not, I think this confirms that the flow of time is getting seriously messed up," he said.

"Oh, absolutely," his younger self agreed. "As much as I enjoy a good snow day from time to time, this is pretty bad. I mean, it's the middle of summer! It should _not_ be snowing."

"It's like... It's almost like the universe thinks its winter or something. That's why it's suddenly freezing outside."

"Mmm. I can't help but feel like this is somehow our fault," the adolescent hedgehog said, scratching the back of his neck. "Like, by us being here, in the wrong time period, the flow of time is getting all out of whack."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I doubt all of this is your fault. And if it is, so what? You didn't mean to launch Mystic Ruins into the second Ice Age or anything."

"Even if Tails and I didn't mean for this to happen, it still happened because of us," the twelve-year-old said, looking down at the ground. "And now WindyValley is frozen still, it's snowing outside, you're hurt, and-"

"Look," the older Sonic said, placing a hand on the younger's shoulder. _His_ shoulder. "We're going to fix this. I promise, we're going to get you guys back to your own time period, and I bet all this will go back to normal. Actually, no. I guarantee it. Everything will be okay."

"Man, I hope so," the kid sighed.

Tails, who hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, hopped over to the smaller hedgehog. "Hey, can we go sledding later?"

"Sure, pal. But we have to help out older me and the other Tails first, okay? We still have more Chaos Emeralds to find, after all." he said, patting the child on the back.

"Right!" Lil' T said enthusiastically. He nodded and went back to looking out the window. Mystic Ruins was filled with big hills to go sledding on, at it looked like the lake had frozen over. Maybe he could convince the Sonics to go ice skating with him? After all, it wasn't water. Well, at least, it wasn't liquid water. He entertained himself with the mental image of his brother- past and future versions- slipping and sliding around on the ice.

"I'm going to go see if my Tails is awake yet. Do you know what time it is?" the older Sonic asked.

"Not sure. Early, though," replied his younger self.

"Cool. Catch ya later," Sonic said, leaving the room and closing the door behind him. He couldn't believe it. It was actually snowing in June. While the fun-loving dare devil in him loved the idea of just goofing off and playing in the snow all day, the grown-up in him realized that this much snow this suddenly was going to cause some problems- not just for the residents of the workshop, but for the other people living in Mystic Ruins as well.

It rarely snowed in the mountainous region; after all, a short ride in a mine car through one of the mountains, and you were in a tropical jungle. The train line to Station Square would likely be closed, shutting a lot of people out from the resources in the city. There were some shops in the Ruins, of course, but most of the groceries were delivered there from the city. Sonic wondered if it was snowing in other places, too. What about Windy Valley? Would the people outside there, suspended in their summer clothes, freeze to death? Or was it unaffected due to the clocks being stopped there? Maybe Tails' computer could tell him what was going on elsewhere.

_'Man, I _really_ wish I didn't hurt myself yesterday,'_ he groaned inwardly. _'Normally, I could clear snow with a quick spin-dash. But now, I don't know if I can curl in enough to pull it off.'_ He rubbed his chest where he got slashed. The scar was still giving off heat, even though the Chaos Emerald had healed it up more than twelve hours ago. Shouldn't it have cooled off by now?

Sonic decided to ignore his mysterious injury for the time being, instead choosing to focus on the strange weather. He went down the stairs, lifting up the blanket that was draped over him so that he wouldn't accidentally trip on it. He reached the ground floor of the workshop and shuddered. It was even colder down here. He pulled his blanket up closer to his face, wrapping himself more tightly in the fabric. He could deal with the cold when he was running or snowboarding or something, but otherwise, he wasn't a huge fan of it.

The hedgehog found Tails sitting at the kitchen table, typing away on his handheld, the Miles Electric, and drinking something warm. Was that coffee? Since when did Tails drink coffee?

"Morning," Sonic said, sitting across from his friend. Tails took a sip of his drink and looked up.

"Oh, hey. You're up early," he said.

"I was cold," the speedster shrugged. "What about you? You're usually not awake at-" he glanced at the clock, "-seven in the morning. Wow, seven? Yeesh."

"Haha, yeah, it's pretty early for us. I heard one of the palm trees on the side of the runway break, so that woke me up," Tails explained. "When I saw all the snow, I couldn't just go back to bed. So I started doing more research."

"Research on what?"

"Well, first of all, why and where it was snowing. None of the weather stations can tell why it's so cold out all of a sudden, so this snow is most definitely not natural. It looks like this storm has been confined to just Mystic Ruins and Station Square. I checked the satellites, WindyValley is still as warm as it was a few days ago. The people there will be okay."

"Phew! I was worried about that," Sonic said, exhaling in relief.

"I thought you would be. Anyways, I haven't heard anything about people's power going out here in the Ruins, but we'll have to wait and see. There are sections of Station Square that are without power, though. Fallen trees took down the power lines."

"Wow, that stinks. We have a backup generator, right?"

"We have several. We should be fine."

"Excellent. Anything else you were able to dig up?"

"Actually, I was researching the whole 'Time Eater' thing, and scanning a bunch of satellite feeds for a trace of its energy signature. I got hits here, WindyValley, and more recently, Station Square. So, while the Time Eater itself isn't around, its influence still is. And it looks like its spreading."

"What do you mean, its influence?"

"I mean, time is getting screwed up in certain areas. And the number of places affected by this is growing. It's almost like... Like there's a rip in the time stream or something, and its getting deeper."

"A _rip in the time stream?"_ Sonic said slowly. "That sounds serious."

"No kidding. I think it started when Eggman first unleashed that monster at your party the other day. The very act of ripping everyone out of the timeline caused a small tear. Even after we defeated the Time Eater and all came home, that tear was steadily growing. It might even be why our younger selves' portal closed before they could reach it. Time around the portal was flowing faster for a little bit, causing it to close faster than it would have normally."

"So..." said the younger Sonic, who suddenly appeared at the door to the living room. "Everything that's happening isn't specifically because me and Tails are here?" He had a somewhat nervous look on his face. "Sorry, I couldn't help eavesdropping."

"Eh, don't be. It's not like we're sharing secrets in here or anything," the older hedgehog said. He pulled out a chair for his younger self.

"To answer your question, no," Tails said, taking a swig of his coffee. "This isn't your fault. I can't believe you thought it was."

"Well, when you're stranded in the future and time is falling apart all around you, yeah, those thoughts start to go through your head," he said with a small, but relieved smile. He sat down next to his older self. "Glad to know this mess isn't our fault, though."

"See? What did I _just_ tell you? Not your fault." The twenty-year-old smiled triumphantly and rustled the short fur on his younger self's head.

"Yes, yes, you were right all along," he smiled, swatting the other Sonic's hand away. "Still, that doesn't explain why I was able to do that whole light-speed dash trick yesterday."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" The older hedgehog said. "It doesn't explain the Blasteroids thing, either."

"The Blasteroids thing? Why, what's up with Blasteroids?"

"Tails and I weren't able to get passed the Level 10 boss when we were your age. We were stuck there for a while."

"Wow, really? How long did it take you?" the smaller hedgehog asked, suppressing a laugh.

Sonic crossed his arms and pouted. "None of your business! The point is, you and Lil' T are little walking paradoxes."

Tails sighed and scratched his head, glancing back down at his Miles Electric. "Sorry, I'm still working on figuring that part out. Paradoxes aren't even supposed to _happen_, so it's slow going trying to figure this out."

"Hey, don't worry about it, bro! Now we at least know why all this stuff is happening," the older Sonic said, leaning back in his chair. He cringed a little as his bruised ribs got pressed against the back of the wooden chair. He stood up and stretched his arms. "I think I'm gonna go check on my ultra-manly battle scars. I'll be right back." He stalked off towards the bathroom, running his hand through his quills.

There was a moment of silence in the kitchen after he left. The younger Sonic and the older Tails were similar in age, so conversation between them should have come easily. The little hedgehog twiddled his thumbs as Tails took a sip of coffee before turning back to his handheld.

"Since when do you drink coffee? Older-me doesn't drink coffee," Sonic noted. Tails shrugged.

"I dunno. Sometimes I'll stay up working later than I should, so I need to drink some every once in a while to keep myself up. After I woke up this morning, I started to do some serious thinking. Hence the coffee," he said, holding up the mug.

"Ah," the young hedgehog said. "Thinking about anything interesting?"

Tails set his mug and his Miles Electric down on the table and rested his head in one of his hands. "Mostly just the stuff I told the older-you about. You know, with the fabric of time having a rip in it, so to speak. Also, who would win in a fight, Eggman or Sharktopus."

Sonic laughed at that. He was just trying to picture Robotnik in one of his many machines, trying to fight a giant shark/octopus hybrid covered in spikes. "I'm not sure! I guess it would depend on what kind of robot the Doc was using to fight it," he reasoned. "Some of his easier-to-bust-up machines wouldn't stand a chance, but the robot he used during our fight in the Death Egg? That would kick Sharktopus' sorry behind." His roundish stomach suddenly growled. "Whoops. Uh, you guys got any cereal in this joint?"

"In the cabinet above the fridge. You know where the bowls and spoons are, right?"

"Yeah, I got it. You want any?" Sonic asked, pulling a chair up to the fridge so he could reach the boxes of cereal.

"No thanks, I'm good," Tails said politely. The young hedgehog rifled through the cabinet before pulling out a chocolaty, sugar-filled cereal. "Hey, where's little-me?" the fox asked.

Sonic climbed down from the chair, pushed it back where it belonged, and opened up the fridge door. "He's upstairs, went back to sleep. He doesn't like waking up early."

"Neither do you."

"Yeah, but I couldn't fall asleep again." The blue blur fetched himself a bowl and a spoon, and poured himself some cereal. He drenched it with milk until the chocolate-flavored flakes were floating in it, and then took a bite. "These are pretty good," he mumbled to himself. He turned the cereal box around and studied the back of it. There was just something about the backs of cereal boxes that always managed to grab people's attention.

The older Sonic sauntered back into the room at that point, new bandages wrapped around his torso. "Back," he said, reclaiming his seat at the table. He picked up the carton of milk that was next to his younger self and took a drink from it.

"Seriously, can you stop doing that? It's nasty," the adolescent asked, annoyed with his future-self's manners.

The older hedgehog wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and set the carton back down. "It's a force of habit. And like I said before, your germs are my germs, and Tails stopped caring a long time ago."

"It makes doing the dishes easier. Not as many glasses to clean," the fox explained.

"And that makes it automatically okay," the twelve-year-old raised an eyeridge as he took another bite of cereal.

"H-hey, those are _my_ Chunky Puffs!" the other hedgehog said in surprise.

Mini-Sonic smirked. "Your Chunky Puffs are my Chunky Puffs," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Touché…" the older one grumbled.

Tails stood up and pushed in his chair. "I should get back downstairs. I need to check and see if the Emerald Radar's found anything yet."

"Just as long as it's not another four-armed monster like the one from yesterday," his brother joked. "Do you need me to clean the snow off the runway today, or can that wait until later?"

Tails looked through a window to the outside. "It's still storming out there, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. I won't be able to take the Tornado out until the weather clears, so you can leave it. Anyhoo, I'll catch you guys later," the fox said, leaving the kitchen and heading towards the basement steps. The kid speedster went back to eating his cereal, while his adult counterpart sat there fidgeting. He wasn't particularly hungry. The heat had finally kicked in, so he wasn't cold anymore. He didn't want to go outside while it was so nasty out, especially when the snow was deep. He was stuck inside the house with nothing to do. Realizing this, he started to tap his foot rapidly, and he groaned in frustration. He could potentially use the Chaos Emerald they obtained yesterday to teleport somewhere that wasn't snowy. Yeah, that was an option… He mulled the idea over in his head. He had no idea where he would go, and he hated to use Chaos Control unless he needed to, but at least he had a way out of the house. His foot calmed down, and his cabin fever subsided slightly.

"Jeez, you're fidgety today," the younger hedgehog noticed.

"Yeah, well so are you! I see those fingers drumming and those feet shaking," the older retorted. Mini-Sonic looked down at his left hand to see that he was, in fact, drumming his fingers rapidly. He curled his hand into a fist to get himself to stop it.

"Am not."

"Yeah, right. You think I don't know cabin fever when I see it? Tell you what, you finish your breakfast, we'll go for a run. I'll Chaos Control us to someplace that's not freezing. Like... I don't know, Apotos maybe? Apotos is nice this time of year. They've got some great rooftops to run on there." the older hedgehog said, getting pumped up for the run. He couldn't help it; it felt like it had been ages since he just ran someplace for the pure fun of it.

"Isn't Apotos on the other side of the world?"

"So? It's fun, and it's warm, and I really want to run."

"Are you sure you're even up for a run?"

"Aw, come on. I just hurt my chest is all! As long as I don't breathe too hard or overexert myself, I'll be fine," said the older hedgehog. "Trust me, we'll have a great time." He got up from his seat and slapped his younger self on the back before heading into the living room. He lowered himself onto the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

Maybe he should give Knuckles a call? With the way things were going, he could use the extra hand finding all the Chaos Emeralds. The echidna had a knack for finding treasure, after all- it was as if he had an Emerald Radar built into his head. Angel Island wasn't even too far away, so the temperamental redhead could easily make the trip over. Sonic picked up the cordless phone that was on the end table next to the sofa and dialed Knuckles' number. While the guardian of the Master Emerald initially refused to carry a cell phone with him, Tails had convinced him to at least carry a wrist communicator like the one Sonic had. The phone rang a few times on the other end before Knuckles picked up.

"What do you want, Sonic?" he asked, clearly annoyed that the hedgehog had the audacity to call him.

"Yo, Knucklehead! Look, I'm gonna just cut to the chase here. Me and me and Tails and Tails need to find all the Chaos Emeralds. Think you can put your little floating island in park and lend a hand?" Sonic asked nonchalantly.

"Are you crazy?"

"Um, could you maybe elaborate...?"

"Sonic, it's snowing like crazy over mystic Ruins right now. How am I supposed to land Angel Island there?"

"Oh yeah... I _though_t this was too easy," Sonic said, embarrassed that he momentarily forgot such a huge factor. He had been thinking about the snow nearly all day. How did he manage to forget it?

"And don't ask if I can just leave Angel Island up in the sky unprotected, because it's not going to happen. If I find some other place to land, I'll let you know, okay? But until then, _don't call me unless I can actually come_." And with that, the moody echidna hung up. Sonic sighed. Well, Knux was out. Still, had other friends who could help.

He phoned Amy next, and while the pink hedgehog was enthralled that he called her, she wasn't able to help out, either; she was helping deliver supplies in Station Square to buildings that lost power, and she couldn't leave. Sonic tried calling Shadow and Rouge next, but they were stuck on a top-secret mission for G.U.N. Sonic even tried calling up the Chaotix, but they were snowed-in, and Charmy Bee had managed to come down with a cold.

The blue hedgehog slid the phone back into its stand, feeling somewhat defeated. It looked like they were on their own with this.

"You done yet?" Mini-Sonic said, leaning against the wall nearest the kitchen. "I've been waiting here for like, fifteen minutes."

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Sorry about that."

"You really think finding the Emeralds will be this hard?" the twelve-year-old asked.

"Ah, I don't know. Maybe? I just wanted to be on the safe side for once, that's all," the older hedgehog said, tilting his head back and looking up at the ceiling. "Plus, who knows how much time we have before things start getting _really_ screwed up around here? What if there are dinosaurs and robots and wizards all running around while the world falls apart?"

"Then we'll handle it," Little Blue said. "It's what we do, whether we like it or not. Now, come on. Didn't you want to go on that run?"

The older Sonic smiled. "I knew you'd come around," he said. "Just let me grab my sneakers from upstairs and tell Tails where we're going, and we'll set out." He got up from the couch and climbed upstairs. Before heading into his own bedroom, he poked his head inside the one shared by the two young time travelers. Lil' T was still fast asleep, curled up under the blankets. The hedgehog couldn't help but grin at the sight. He closed the door and went into his own bedroom. He slipped his famous red sneakers onto his feet, doing the straps up tight. He bounced on the balls of his feet, feeling good. He grabbed a few rings for spending money, just in case they got hungry while they were there, and then went back downstairs. He walked through the living room and headed straight towards the basement steps. Descending the stairs quickly, the hedgehog stopped next to Tails' computer. "Hey, I'm going to take the Chaos Emerald for a bit of a joy ride. Me and Mini-Me are going to go to Apotos," he said.

"Are you sure you're good to run? You don't want your wound to open up and start bleeding again," Tails said, concerned for his friend's well-being. Sonic spun the fox's chair around boredly.

"Chillax, Tails! I'll be fine. It's not like I'll be alone if anything goes wrong, so you have no need to worry."

"Okay, okay, if you insist," the vulpine said, turning back towards his computer. "The search for the Emeralds is coming up dry so far, but I'll let you know if I come across anything, alright?"

"Sounds good, pal. Good luck!" Sonic said, turning and heading back up the stairs.

"You too!" Tails called after him. The speedster strolled back into the living room and picked up the Chaos Emerald that had been sitting on the coffee table. He tossed it lightly in his hand as he walked up to his past-self, who was now seated in an armchair.

"C'mon, let's skedaddle," the older hedgehog said, flashing the Emerald in front of the adolescent's face. He gripped his hand to help him out of the chair while he focused on the power of the gem in his hand. "_Chaos Control!_" he shouted. There was a bright flash of light, a slight feeling of disorientation as they teleported halfway around the globe, and then it was suddenly dark.

It took the two hedgehogs a few moments to adjust to the dim lighting. It was nighttime in Apotos, and the lights of the city could be seen in the distance. At the moment, the two Sonics were standing in the middle of a field, with nothing but bright stars overhead. The breeze that blew by was warm, and rustled the grass in waves. The fresh scents of the ocean wafted through their nostrils, filling them with the feeling of adventure.

"Wow... It's beautiful here," Mini-Sonic said in awe, looking around at the scenery.

"You think this is beautiful?" the older one said, stretching out his legs. "It's even nicer in the city. All the sights and smells and sounds and people... It's a rush, let me tell you."

"Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's go!" the child said enthusiastically, taking off towards the white city. His older self smiled and boosted after him. Within seconds, they were running side-by-side, and trying to not bump into each other.

"Come on, follow the leader!" the taller hedgehog said, taking the lead. He ran up a tree and leapt off of one of the branches. He landed on another tree branch about fifteen feet away, and Little Sonic was close on his tail. He leapt from branch to branch, gripping with his hands and swinging from them when he didn't have enough height to land on them with his feet. This continued until they reached the city. Sonic jumped off the last tree branch and landed on a low, flat rooftop.

In Apotos, the buildings were all built extremely close together, so it made for an interesting run across the tops of buildings. Luckily, the roofs were all flat, making it harder to slip and fall off at high speeds. There were even some small loop-de-loops and platforms scattered about. For most people, it was just fascinating architecture. For Sonic the Hedgehog, it was an obstacle for him to have fun with.

The older hedgehog led the way through one of these loops, the end of which had a ramp that was perfect for jumping off of. He launched himself off it and landed in a narrow street lined with stands and vendors on one side, and a garden on the other. His younger self followed suit, and the two had some difficulty trying to get in front of one another without wrecking the city. There were a surprising amount of people around, for how late it was. Most of them were not terribly shocked to see a blue blur streak past them- it was the fact that there were two blurs which was the cause for excited yelps whenever the two hedgehogs ran by.

They kept this up for about an hour, laughing all the while. Sonic had forgotten how much he loved it in this place. It had friendly people, a great atmosphere (even though it was right next to the ocean) and the best ice cream around. But every time he had been in the city, he had some purpose- some reason to be there. Today, his only reason was fun.

* * *

**Notes: **SUDDENLY SNOWING. Also a loooot of talking. Do you know how many times I've tried re-writing this chapter and the dialogue in it to try and cut it? Ah well. The plot will thicken a little more next week. Tell me what you thought about this chapter in a review! Because I honestly don't know how I feel about it, haha. Okay, time to write that essay. See ya!


	9. Attack on Apotos

**Notes: **Hello again! Prepare yourself for a long chapter, the longest of the story so far. Something is rotten in the city of Apotos... As always, a massive thank-you goes out to everyone for continuing to support this story. It makes me so happy that you all like it! And now, on with the show~

* * *

The two hedgehogs ran a little while longer before the elder was forced to stop. He sat down on the edge of a roof, leaning up against a chimney. He was breathing heavily and clutching his chest. The younger Sonic skidded to a stop a few roofs away, then doubled back and approached his counterpart. "What's up?" the child asked, sitting down next to his older self. The smaller hedgehog wasn't breathing nearly as hard as the taller one. In fact, Little Sonic felt great.

"I'm fine. I was just… breathing too hard, is all. Ribs started to hurt again," the older Sonic said in between labored breaths. "Just give me a second, I'll be fine. I just need to let the pain pass."

"Sure thing," said the lighter blue hedgehog. He looked out at the city. It was truly beautiful, especially basked in the soft light of the moon. The whole city seemed to glow, the moonlight reflecting off of the clean white of the buildings. Why couldn't all cities be like this? Not filled with crazy death traps or robots or people who can't tell a hedgehog from a rat or a porcupine. Just a nice, normal city, filled with… cries for help?

"Did you hear that just now?" the younger Sonic asked, cleaning his ear out with his finger in case he was hearing things.

"Person screaming? You bet," his older self replied, trying to get to his feet. He was trying (and failing) to hide the fact that he was still in pain. "Come on, let's go check it out!" he said enthusiastically.

"Nice try, you're not fooling me. You wait here until you can actually move again, I'll go on ahead. Catch up to me once you're useful in a fight." The smaller hedgehog punched him playfully in the arm before jumping down from the roof they were resting on. He took off down another narrow street, in the direction of the scream. While not a huge fan of throwing himself into danger, he couldn't sit by and do nothing if someone else could be hurt.

He ran a short distance through the city before he came to a small, mostly empty plaza. There were several creatures scattered about, much like the one that he had fought in WindyValley yesterday. These appeared to be a little bit smaller, a bit less powerful maybe, but definitely the same type of monster. The majority of them were crowding around one corner of the plaza; maybe whoever screamed was in that corner, surrounded by the beasts.

Wasting no time, the young hedgehog jumped into action. He revved up into a spin dash, and took off towards the nearest monster's legs. The creature fell over, its feet having been knocked out from under it, and slipped into unconsciousness as its head collided with the cobblestone street.

Sonic got to his feet and noticed the rest of the monsters had turned their heads towards him. Perfect. Well, at least their previous victim was safe. He took a fighting stance, standing light on his toes so he could dodge any attack quickly. After seeing what one of the big monsters did to his older-self, he was less than eager to get in a pickle concerning five of the smaller ones.

He sprung up into the air, curling himself into a ball and spinning around until he was more buzzsaw than mammal. He landed directly on the head of one of the monsters, doing a bit of damage with his spikes before he jumped off and landed on another one's head. This one raised its hands up to try and smack Sonic away, but the hedgehog jumped before the creature could hit him. The creature ended up bashing itself on the head, which only got worse when Sonic came down and landed on its noggin again. It slumped over, knocked out cold. Sonic jumped off of it before it hit the ground and landed outside the group of villains. He ran around them at high speeds, sending them all into a fit of confusion. He made another attack for one of the monster's legs, knocking it over before piledriving into its stomach.

He suddenly felt cold claws grip his midsection as he was lifted into the air by something behind him. One of the creatures had caught him off guard. His first instinct was to struggle to try and break free- he quickly decided against this, however, when he realized that wriggling around would probably only coax the creature's claws into penetrating his flesh. Instead, he flexed his quills, quickly turning them from soft hairs into spines that could cut metal. He whipped his head backward, jamming his quills into the monster's arm. The creature screeched as it let go of the hedgehog, and it was now bleeding a slimy green substance from its puncture wounds. _'Ew'_, Sonic thought, shaking some of the goop off of his spines. He was going to take a shower when he got back to the workshop, that was for sure. If he got back to the work shop, that was. His older self was still no where to be seen, and there were still 3 monsters left. Two of the monsters were suffering injuries, which, while making them weaker, also made them much, much angrier. Sonic quickly curled up into a ball and revved into another spindash. He needed to finish this before he ended up getting hurt.

He took out the legs of the bleeding monster, incapacitating it sufficiently enough to keep it from getting up again. The one whose head he had smashed into earlier charged at him, its long, strong arms preparing to claw his face off. Acting purely on instinct, Sonic ducked, sliding underneath the monster's legs. It was a good thing the hedgehog was short- if his older self had tried that trick, he wouldn't have made it. Once behind the monster, Sonic jumped onto its back, wrapped his legs around its neck, and yanked downwards, flipping the creature backwards over his head and onto the floor. That left one monster left to take down. Right? Sonic looked around, but the remaining beast was no where to be seen. Unless...

He looked up, remembering what Tails had said the other day about monsters dropping down from above. The monster had somehow climbed up one of the buildings surrounding the plaza, and was readying to pounce down on its unsuspecting prey. Sonic grinned up at it. This was one of the smart ones, apparently. Unfortunately, not smart enough. Sonic dashed up the side of the building the creature was standing on before it had time to react. Within seconds, the hedgehog was standing behind it. With a quick wave goodbye, Sonic jumped into the air and tornado-kicked the monster off the building, sending it plummeting to the ground. "And stay down," he said with a huff.

The monsters now defeated, Sonic jumped nimbly down the building and landed back in the center of the plaza. He wasted no time surveying the damage he and the monsters might have caused during their fight, and instinctively went over to the person the creatures had been ganging up on before he arrived.

An old man, a professionally dressed one at that, was regaining his composure as Sonic approached him. "Hey gramps, you okay? Those things didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Oh, no, I'm quite all right," the man said with a smile. He wore glasses, and had a very large, almost cartoonish nose. "Thank you for saving my life- Sonic? Oh, fancy meeting you here!"

"You know me?" the hedgehog asked, slightly confused now. He had never seen this old man before in his life.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten all about old Professor Pickle, now! It wasn't too long ago that I assisted you in putting the world back together. Only about three years or so, yes?"

"Ooohhh, no, look mister, you don't understand, I'm from-"

"Hey, younger-me! There you are!" Sonic turned around to see his older self finally approaching, apparently feeling much better. The twenty-year-old waved cheerfully before observing all the monsters laying about. "Wow, looks like I missed a heck of a party."

"Yo, this guy says he knows us!" the younger hedgehog said, pointing a thumb towards the professor.

"What? Oh, hey, Professor Pickle! Long time no see!" the older said cheerfully, approaching the old man with an outstretched hand.

"Ah, yes, indeed. Although, if I may ask, why are there two of you, Sonic?" the human asked, shaking Sonic's hand.

"Long story," both hedgehogs said in unison. They glanced at each other and laughed. "It's time travel, Prof," the elder Sonic said with a smile. "He's me, from eight years ago. Which would explain why he doesn't know you- by the way, let me introduce you two! Little me, this is Professor Pickle, from SpagoniaUniversity. Professor, this is my past self!"

"My, well it is a pleasure to meet you, Sonic!" the professor said, leaning down to shake the young hedgehog's hand.

"Erm, likewise. Oh, and you're welcome. For saving you from the monsters and stuff. It was no big deal."

"On the contrary! If you had not come, I surely would have been dead by now. You have my most sincerest thanks."

"So, professor," the older Sonic said, "what are you doing here in Apotos? Don't you have, you know, professor stuff to do?"

"Well, it is the summer you know. Thought I'd take a bit of a vacation!" the old man chuckled. "Also, Apotos is currently having its bi-annual sandwich competition, and my cucumber sandwiches are a prize contender!"

"Oh, right, the cucumber sandwich thing. Gotcha. Though, I'm not sure why those monsters would be interested in a sandwich party..." Sonic said, placing a finger on his chin.

"Yeah, I was wondering just what they were doing here, too," his younger self said. "Time hasn't stopped here or anything, so they have no reason to be here, right?"

"Time stopped? What?" the professor inquired.

"Yeah, it happened the other day in WindyValley," the young hedgehog explained briefly. "Whole place is frozen in time, and we saw a monster a lot like these ones. Older me, you don't think...?"

The green-eyed hedgehog gulped. "Apotos is next... Professor, you need to get out of here as fast as you can. We need to evacuate the city. Time is going to stop here soon, and even if it's not, it's not safe to be here with all these monsters around!"

"Well, I can't argue with that."

Sonic nodded and pulled out the green Chaos Emerald, the gem sparkling under the combined light of the streetlights and the moon. The jewel sent a gentle rush of warmth through his body, filling him with energy. He could almost feel the Emerald thump in time with his own heartbeat. He winked down at his younger self.

"I'm gonna get the professor out of here," he said quickly. "I'll be back in a flash. Hold on tight, Prof!" He grabbed onto the old man's arm with one hand and gripped the Chaos Emerald with the other. "Chaos Control!"

And then they were gone in a flash of light, leaving the preteen alone in the plaza.

The twenty-year-old and the professor reappeared in a grassy field, about a mile out from the city. Sonic looked out at the port town and frowned. He didn't like the feeling he was getting in his gut.

"Oho!" Professor Pickle exclaimed, getting his bearings straight. "So that is what Chaos Control is like! Fascinating!"

"Sorry Prof, but I can't stick around and neither can you. You gotta get back to Spagonia, 'kay? Me and my younger self can handle things around here," Sonic said, turning towards the old man. He hated to just leave him, but teleporting all the way to Spagonia and back would take too much time and energy. The professor nodded, hands tucked behind his back.

"I understand. Best of luck to you, Sonic!" he said, glancing at the hedgehog in front of him, and then the city.

"Good luck to you too, dude!" Sonic smiled. He held the Emerald out in front of him and closed his eyes. He could feel the gem's energy mixing with his own as he gripped it tight. "Chaos Control!" he yelled for what felt like the hundredth time that day before vanishing into thin air.

ooo

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the globe, a young fox reawakened from his slumber. Tiny Tails yawned, stretching underneath his blankets. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before throwing his covers off of him and sliding out of bed. He shoved a pair of gloves onto his hands and slipped his red and white sneakers onto his small feet. "Sonic? You awake?" he asked, glancing up to the top bunk. He huffed when he saw the bed was empty. He knew his big bro had tried to get some more sleep, just like he did. Maybe the hedgehog couldn't fall asleep and had gone downstairs?

The kit left the bedroom and went downstairs, shivering slightly. Even with the heat cranked up, it was still kind of cold inside the workshop. Maybe he could ask if they could start a fire in the fire place and make some s'mores. He loved making s'mores when it got cold out.

Lil' T poked his head into the living room, expecting to see at least one Sonic in there. Alas, it was empty, and had been for over an hour. The kitchen was also deserted, as well as the hangar. All of the planes were still in their proper places, and a quick look out the window confirmed that no one had left the house on foot- there would have been a deep rut in the deep snow if they had. Where the heck was everyone?

The youngster decided that it couldn't hurt to check in the basement to see if anyone was there. He opened the basement door and wandered down the stairs, looking around as he reached the bottom. His eyes sparked happily as he spied the form of his older self sitting at the computer. He was typing away at the large console, which had screens covering half the wall.

"Older me!" the kit said with a smile, skipping over to the teenager.

"Oh, hey!" the older one said. "Look who's finally awake."

"Where are the Sonics?"

The blue-eyed one exhaled. "They said they were going to Apotos with the Chaos Emerald to get a bit of fresh air, but I haven't been able to get a hold of either of them on the older Sonic's communicator."

"Are they in trouble?" The child's eyes went wide. His future-self shrugged.

"Not sure. They're probably fine, we both know that they can handle themselves. If anything I'll bet they're having too much fun running around to even hear the communicator go off." He kicked gently with his feet, rolling himself away from the computer. His younger self climbed up onto the chair with him and took a seat on his lap.

"Maybe your call isn't going through because of the weather?"

"Not a bad guess, Little-Me. The workshop's satellite is pretty powerful though, so weather is almost never a problem with it. You never know, though, you could be right. Not much we can really do if that's the case, though." The teenager leaned back in his chair and blew his bangs out of his face. "Either way, they're probably going to be gone a while. What do you want to do in the meantime?"

The child curled into the chest of his older self, hearing the other's heart beat in time with his own. "Can we maybe make some s'mores in the fireplace?" he asked, looking up at the bigger fox with adorable puppy dog eyes.

The older Tails laughed. "You know that face won't work on me. I'm you."

"Yeah, but… but s'mores!"

"I never said we couldn't make s'mores," he smiled. It was amazing how much he still had in common with his six-year-old self. He had always loved sitting around a fire, whether roughing it outside or in front of a fireplace, and had always asked his big brother if they could make s'mores. Of course, back in the day, he and Sonic weren't the most well-to-do people on the planet, so the answer was almost always 'no.' As time passed, they started to earn a living from the whole hero business (as well as a few odd jobs on the side), and they would sometimes make cookies and brownies and things for super-special occasions. S'mores had always been the fox's favorite though, for some reason. Something about making them was just irresistibly fun, whether you were six or fourteen.

Besides, s'mores were a lot easier to get right than a pot of mac and cheese.

"Come on, let's head upstairs," the older Tails said, lifting his younger persona up off of his lap and setting him down on the ground. "You can get the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate, and I'll go get the fire started."

The kid's face lit up like the Fourth of July as he flew up the stairs as fast as he could. He soared into the kitchen and immediately started tearing open cabinets and drawers, looking for what they would need for the campfire treats. The elder of the two was upstairs a few seconds later. He poked his head into the kitchen to make sure his past self hadn't broken anything in his excited haste, pointed out that the graham crackers were in the cabinet next to the microwave, and then ducked into the living room to set up the fire.

ooo

Sonic reappeared a split second later in the plaza, somewhat out of breath. He wasn't used to teleporting this much in such a short period of time. "I'm back! Miss me?" he said, expecting his younger self to answer. His ears, however, were met with nothing but silence. He looked around. "Little Blue? Hello?" His younger persona was no where to be found.

_'Where could he have gone? I was only gone for a minute.'_ The hedgehog tapped his foot, annoyed. _'And he had the nerve to call ME impatient.'_ He sighed. He considered calling out for him, but he wasn't terribly keen on attracting any monsters that might be lurking around. Instead, he leapt up onto a nearby rooftop and scanned the city. It would be easier to spot the kid from above.

"Now, if I were me, where would I have run off to…?" He glanced around, looking for anything that was blue and moving at the speed of sound. He looked down at the streets of Apotos for several seconds before he noticed a streak of cobalt race down one of the larger avenues. _'Bingo.'_

Sonic jumped off the roof, landing solidly on his feet, and took off in the direction his past-self was headed. The hedgehog felt on edge. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, given how empty the streets were. Even late at night, Apotos always had people strolling around. It was probably for the best, though; people were safer from the time monsters if they stayed in their homes.

The green-eyed hero made a sharp turn around a corner and accidentally ran right-smack into his younger self. The two fell to the ground in a jumble of limbs and curse words, each struggling to get back up again. Once they untangled themselves from each other, the smaller hedgehog kicked his counterpart in the shin.

"Ow! What was that for?!" the elder Sonic asked, clutching his leg with both hands.

"For ditching me!" his younger self scowled. "'I'll be back in a second.' Yeah, right! Where the hell WERE you?"

The twenty-year-old shot him a confused look, raising an eyeridge. "Dude, what are you talking about?" he asked. "I just 'ported Professor Pickle about a mile away from the city, and then I came right back."

"I've been waiting for you to come back for almost an hour," the child said, crossing his arms in frustration.

"An hour?! Ever think that that maybe has to do with the time stream acting up, and not me?"

"Well, yeah, but- it's weird. Here, I gotta show you something," Little Sonic said, giving his future self a hand getting to his feet. He walked over to a market stall on the side of the street. Nobody was manning the shop, even though it appeared open and ready for business. The young speedster picked up a small decorative bowl off of the stand, holding it up for the older Sonic to see. Then, he let go of the bowl, letting it drop.

The larger hedgehog flinched instinctively, expecting the ceramic bowl to shatter. When he didn't hear the sound of fine china being destroyed, though, he opened up his eyes. When he saw the bowl, his jaw dropped.

The piece of pottery was floating in midair, crawling at a snail's pace towards the ground. It was like it was falling in ultra-slow motion.

"See that?" the black-eyed hedgehog said. "Everyone in the city is moving at a normal speed, but stuff like this plate moves all slow-mo. Not only that, but all the clocks here are moving super fast. I assumed, y'know, that you were moving normal speed too, just like I was."

"That's certainly weird," the older Sonic said, putting a finger to his chin and leaning in to inspect the slowly plummeting plate. "We couldn't have BOTH been moving normal speed, though, because I KNOW I wasn't gone an hour. Maybe… Maybe everyone in the city is being sped up. That would explain why this thing is falling so slow- it's falling normally, and we're just moving so fast, it looks super slow. Time here isn't just slowing to a stop like it did in WindyValley. It's going into an all-out frenzy before everything collapses. But why Apotos? Why now?"

"You mean you DIDN'T know this would happen when you brought us here?"

"I had no idea. Unless us being here somehow triggered something, it's a complete coincidence that all this is going down now."

"So I guess that leaves the question, why is time being all mondo-weird here? And is it our fault?"

"I dunno. WindyValley's time stopped all on its own, so I don't think it's us… Do you hear something?" The older hedgehog turned his head around slowly, only to be greeted by an approaching hoard of time monsters. A grin spread across his face. "Looks like I'm not too late to the party, after all!"

His younger incarnation took a fighting stance, bouncing up and down on his toes and shaking his hands to loosen up his wrists. "Where do these things keep coming from?" he wondered aloud.

"No clue," his older self answered. "Now come on, what are we waiting for? Let's kick some tail!" And with that, he took off towards the large group of monsters, adrenaline pumping through his body. He jumped high up into the air, spinning fast, and landed right on the head of the first creature he saw. The beast crumpled to the ground while Sonic sped off of it, bowling through about five of six more monsters before jumping to his feet.

"Come on, aren't you guys going to put up any sort of fight?" he asked, hand on his hips and yawning dramatically. One of the monsters nearest him let out a gurgling snarl as it swung its bulky arm towards the hedgehog's head. Sonic spotted the attack from a mile away. He leapt into the air, avoiding the attack with ease. "Hah! You stick-brains are gonna have to try harder than-" he stopped mid-sentence, the monster's other fist colliding with his stomach, right below the scar. He was sent flying back a good ten feet or so, landing hard on the cobblestone street. He coughed roughly. "Hey man, so not cool…"

"Good grief," his younger self said, shaking his head. "This is where being cocky gets you!" Deciding it was time for him to join the fray as well, he took a few steps back before launching forward towards the group of enemies. He slammed his foot into the chest of an upcoming monster, ribs shattering as it collapsed to the ground. Sonic was sure glad these things were evil, otherwise fighting them like this would give him nightmares for weeks. He could hear another creature coming up from behind him, and he swung his leg around. He felt his sneaker collide with the back of the monster's knee, and the beast fell to the ground.

Just as that monster came crashing down, the older Sonic got back up. His midsection was a little sore, part from the punch he received, part because his injury from yesterday didn't like when he curled up into a ball. _'Dang it… I'm gonna have to be more careful. I REALLY don't want to hurt myself again,'_ he thought, instinctively running a hand over his bandaged chest.

He didn't have much time to relax, however, as the monster who had just slugged him in the gut was rearing up for another punch. The hedgehog ducked skillfully out of the way of the swinging fist, simultaneously sidestepping around the beast until he was standing to its side. He roundhouse kicked it, his foot hitting the nape of the monster's neck. It quickly fell to the ground, unconscious. "Wow, these guys are a lot easier than that big one we fought yesterday," Sonic remarked, punching another monster that had come up to him.

"There are also loads of them!" Mini-Sonic reminded his counterpart while shoving one of the creatures off of himself. He curled up into a ball, revving up and blasting through three enemies with a well-placed spindash. Meanwhile, his older self was busy homing attacking their heads, hitting each monster multiple times to ensure that it went down and stayed down. He landed next to the younger hedgehog after taking down at least five of the smoky creatures. He was breathing heavily, and his bandages were becoming undone because of all the movement.

"How you holdin' up, gramps?" his past-self asked, keeping his eyes on the enemy's dwindling numbers.

"First of all, stop calling me gramps," the older said, slightly annoyed. "Second, feelin' fine. You?"

"A few scrapes, I'll live. Looks like we've still got a little more fighting to do."

"I'll take the ones on the left, you handle the ones on the right?"

"Can do." Little Sonic nodded as he sped off, jumping into a monster's face. The green-eyed hedgehog smiled. It was kind of cool watching himself fight. He quickly turned his focus to the left side of the swarm of monsters. The only way he could take them out without the risk of being overwhelmed by them would be to either spindash through them multiple times, or to unleash a frenzy of homing attacks. Either way, he would have to curl up, causing his chest to ache even more. However, he didn't have too much of a choice. He ran towards the monsters, jumping into the air and curling up tight. He propelled himself forward, shooting into enemy after enemy. With the rate at which the two hedgehogs were going, it wasn't long before all of the creatures were incapacitated. The elder touched down from his barrage of aerial attacks, panting. All the movement had loosened his bandages even further, and they slipped off his tired form and fell to the ground. He stood up and clapped his hands together.

"Alright! That was some workout," he said, smiling. His younger self walked over, stretching his arms.

"Totally. Where do all these guys keep coming from, any… way…" The end of his question hug in the air as he looked at the older hedgehog's scar. "Is that the same cut you got yesterday?" he asked tentatively.

"Sure is!"

"What happened to it?"

"I accidentally 'healed' it yesterday when I used the Emerald to bring us all home to the workshop. Though I use the word 'healed' loosely…"

"I'll say. It looks even bigger than it did yesterday."

"What?!" The twenty-year-old ripped the remaining few strips of bandage off him and looked down at his chest. The scar that was just a line going across his torso the day before had become wider, now taking up a good quarter of his chest and midsection. "How on Mobius…?" he breathed, running a gloved finger along the scarred up skin. It wasn't especially warm, like it was that morning. It felt the same as the rest of him now. He frowned.

"It wasn't this big this morning," he said, glancing up at his past-self. The small hedgehog gulped.

"That's bad, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah."

"Maybe we should call it a day here and go back to the workshop? We should probably have the older Tails look at that-"

"Later," the injured hedgehog said with a shake of his head. "First, I want to find out why these monsters are attacking Apotos, and I want to see if we can get some of these folks out of the city."

"Oh, I already took care of that," Little Sonic said with a nod. "I helped evacuate the city while you were gone helping the Professor.

"Excellent! Nice work, lil' me. You wouldn't happen to have any leads as to what to do next, would you?"

"Erm… I think most of the monsters have been hanging around the town square. We can check around there."

"Sounds like a plan," older-Sonic said, flashing his customary thumbs up. "Let's get going. I don't want to be here when time stops."

The younger Sonic nodded, and the duo started toward the center of the city. They didn't run too fast, trying to be mindful of the elder hedgehog's injury. The two rounded harsh corners and dashed through alleyways, taking out any stray monsters they found on the way. They made their way up to the rooftops, quickly traversing the city from above. It wasn't long before the town square was in sight. The Sonics stopped right on the edge of the last rooftop and ducked down, hiding themselves from view. They peeked out over the edge of the roof and gulped.

ooo

It wasn't long before the Tailses were seated on the floor of the workshop's living room, roasting marshmallows over the fire crackling in the fireplace. Their four fluffy tails fidgeted, trying not to get too warm from the heat of the fire. The house had warmed up considerably since that morning, and although it was still snowing outside, it felt warm and cozy inside.

The older of the two rotated his marshmallow over the flame slowly and evenly, ensuring that the sugary confection got golden brown all over and didn't run the risk of having it drop off the stick and into the fire. The younger, on the other hand, found himself getting continuously distracted by looking into the flames, or by something his future self was saying to him, and often had his marshmallow turn much darker on one side than the other. He accidentally burnt his white, fluffy snack more than once. One time, the marshmallow actually starting to bubble where it was closest to the fire. The older Tails kept giving up his professionally-roasted marshmallows to the child so that they could both enjoy some non-blackened s'mores.

Though appearing focused on the even cooking of his marshmallows, the elder fox's mind was buzzing with activity. A part of him felt wrong for cooking s'mores when there was a June blizzard outside and time was crumbling. But what could he do? His scans hadn't picked up the traces of any more Chaos Emeralds yet. The Sonics were both out, and they had the one Chaos Emerald the group had obtained with them, meaning that Tails couldn't use it to supe up his scanners. With the weather like it was, it would be difficult to even get to Station Square, never mind the opposite side of the world. At the moment, there wasn't much for the two-tail to do but to hunker down and wait.

He was also concerned about Sonic. True, the hedgehog had been known to disappear for a week or two at a time with little to no warning and almost no contact. But this was different. Now, the time stream was falling apart, and Sonic wasn't exactly in peak physical condition. Tails didn't doubt his big brother's abilities, but he couldn't help but worry sometimes. Especially since the speedster hadn't responded to any of his messages. What was up with that, anyway?

He smooshed his marshmallow in between two pieces of graham cracker and a square of chocolate, and took a bite. He savored the flavor hitting his tongue- warm, gooey, and sweet. He told himself to relax, that the Sonics had barely been gone for two hours, and that they were perfectly fine. After all, if anyone could handle himself in a sticky situation, Sonic the Hedgehog could.

"Aw, man," the six-year-old Tails whined next to him. "I dropped my marshmallow in the fire again."

"You're letting it roast for too long on one side, is all," the older one said, placing another marshmallow on his kid-self's stick. He placed his hand on top of the child's, and moved the hand and the stick with precision over the fire. They sat there in silence for a few seconds, watching the marshmallow slowly turn golden.

"I hope Sonic's okay. Both of 'em," said the smaller fox, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them. The older Tails didn't look at him, and just stared into the fire.

"You read my mind, dude," he sighed. "I'm sure they're fine. They've both seen plenty of action before. They can handle themselves."

The child thought about this for a second, and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He pulled the stick out of the fire and ate the marshmallow at its end in one bite.

ooo

The square was positively crawling with monsters. There had to be a hundred of them, at least. There were way too many enemies for even two Sonics to handle, especially since one of them had a painful, magically growing scar on his chest. They got down low to the roof, feeling tense.

"Yep," the younger hedgehog whispered quietly. "That's a lot of monsters."

"What are they all doing here, though? There's gotta be something special here," the other whispered back. "Something they're after, something they're guarding maybe."

Mini-Sonic poked his head over the edge of the roof and scanned the area, dark eyes darting about. He caught a glimpse of something red and immediately pulled his older self over to look. "Does that qualify as something special?" he asked, already knowing the answer. He directed the larger hedgehog's eyes toward a large pool in the center of the square that was filled with un-moving fountains. Sitting at the bottom of the pool was a fist-sized red stone.

"The next Chaos Emerald," the older speedster breathed. Suddenly, everything clicked. "They're attracted to the Emeralds. That's why time stopped in WindyValley, and that's why time is stopping here. It's got something to do with the Emeralds." He narrowed his eyes and looked around the place. "Now, how are we supposed to get it without killing ourselves?"

The two sat in silence for a few moments, each scanning the environment for anything they could use to their advantage. Unfortunately, there were just too many monsters for them to get near the Emerald without being spotted.

"I'm going to have to use Chaos Control to go get it," the green-eyed hedgehog mumbled.

"Seriously? Jeez, it feels like relying on that so much should be against the rules or something."

"Okay, well, do you have a better idea?"

"One of us could always distract 'em while the other makes a mad dash for the Emerald. I mean, we're going to be spotted no matter what we try, so why not take advantage of that?" the adolescent hedgehog suggested with a shrug. His future-self mulled the idea over in his head.

"That could work… Especially since using Chaos Control any more today is not high on my priorities list," the elder nodded. "Okay, which one of us is the decoy?"

"I'll do it. No offense older-me, but you're not fit to be in the line of fire right now." The older hedgehog made a face, putting a hand to his chest.

"You're probably right," he admitted with a sigh. "I want you to be careful though, okay? Don't do anything too fancy, just get in, do what you've gotta do, and get out as soon as I have the Emerald."

"Okay. That goes for you too. Nothing fancy, Mr. 'These Monsters Are So Easy To Fight.'"

"Oh, shut up," the older Sonic smiled and playfully shoved the twelve-year-old. "Go on, go play in the middle of enemy territory."

"Fine, fine, I'm gone," the kid said with a short laugh. "Good luck, Sonic." And with that, he was gone, jumping stealthily off the roof of the building.

_'That's just trippy, him calling me 'Sonic,''' _the adult speedster thought, smiling. He snuck quietly down the side of the building and onto the ground. He poked his head tentatively around the corner, waiting until the coast was clear. Little Sonic was running high speed laps around the square, whooping and yelling all the way. He even took out a couple of monsters who had their backs turned to him. He came to a halt at the far side of the plaza, shouting something at the creatures, taunting them into going after him- monsters near the Emerald included.

Now was his chance. The older hedgehog dashed as fast and as silently as he could, reaching the edge of the pool without a problem. The problem laid in the fact that the Chaos Emerald was under three feet of water.

Sonic's quills bristled just looking at the stuff. It hadn't looked nearly so deep from the rooftop. Barely topping three feet tall himself, there was no way to get the Emerald without completely submerging his body in the liquid. He gulped, instinctively tensing up. It was a well known fact that Sonic the Hedgehog couldn't swim. It was lesser known that he was a total hydrophobe, to the point where he hated all water that wasn't in a glass, a sink, or coming out of his shower. Only a handful of people knew the true extent of his fear; he thanked Chaos that Eggman wasn't in on the secret. But, fear or no fear, he had a job to do, and he was determined to do it.

He looked down at the water again, shivers shooting up his spine. He really didn't want to go through with this. He glanced up to check on his past self. The younger hedgehog was dashing about, keeping the huge crowd of monsters away from the pool as best as he could.

_'Come on, Sonic, you're running out of time,'_ the older thought, eyes darting around nervously. _'It's just a little water, stop being a baby. Just do it. The sooner you get that Emerald, the sooner you can go home.'_ He pulled off his gloves and gently stuck his fingers in the water, then his hand, then his whole right arm. He squirmed, hating the way the water felt. It felt like he was being swallowed up whole, the liquid finding its way into every single nook and cranny of his hand, coating his bare skin in wetness. He yanked his arm out after a few seconds and groaned unhappily. This would be harder than he thought.

He climbed up onto the lip of the pool, sitting so that he could have dipped his feet in if he wanted to. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves a little bit. _'Okay, you can do this. Compared to Labyrinth Zone, this should be a piece of cake.'_ He quickly identified where the Emerald was so he could grab it without having to search for it blindly.

_'One.'_ He tightened his bare fists, knuckles turning white.

_'Two.'_ He inhaled, filling powerful lungs with precious oxygen.

_'Three.'_ He closed his eyes, held his nose, and dove in.

He sank like a rock, completely submerged in the water. His eyes shot open and started frantically bolting left and right. He started to panic, air escaping his mouth and nose in rushed blubs. The water squirmed its way into his fur, sending shivers all through his body. He couldn't hear anything clearly, he couldn't see, and he couldn't breathe.

Sonic really hated water.

He moved his hands around the bottom of the pool, searching for the elusive Chaos Emerald. He couldn't find anything. Had he accidentally shoved it away with his involuntary flailing?

Suddenly, his fingers brushed against something hard and smooth that filled him with energy and steadied his strained heartbeat. His ungloved digits curled around the object. As soon as he was sure it was firmly in his grasp, he jumped out of the water, soaring about ten feet into the air before coming back down to the ground.

He coughed and sputtered upon landing, his insides feeling waterlogged. He gulped in air, the oxygen tasting amazing after spending what felt to the hedgehog like an eternity underwater. He slowly got to his feet and grabbed his gloves. His legs were shaking a bit, and his breathing was still jagged, but other than this, he appeared outwardly to be no worse for wear.

"Hey!" his younger self ran over. "Got it?"

The wet hedgehog held up a bright red gem and smiled. "Of course."

"Then get us out of here!" The child glanced back, eyeing nervously the large group of angry monsters heading their way.

"Yipe! I'm on it… Chaos Control!"

* * *

**Notes: **Whew! That was a close one. I had a lot of fun writing this one, what with all the fighting and bonding and getting into trouble. We're finally going to visit one of our other main hedgehogs next week, which I know a few of you have been waiting for. Thanks for reading! Reviews are cherished.

**P.S. **I'm getting close to running out of completed chapters, and my buffer will be over by the end of November. I'm working on extending that buffer, but in case I don't in time, I thought I'd give you guys a heads up! This will not affect the next 2-3 updates. Thanks!


	10. Calling For Backup

**Notes: **And now, the chapter that a bunch of you have been waiting for! We finally get to see what's going on with the other main characters in the story! Hooray! *confetti falls from the ceiling* In other news, this story has reached 30 reviews! How rad is that? Thanks so much for your continued support, guys. It's been a team effort. Now, whaddaya say we get on to the main attraction?

* * *

Using Chaos Control several times a day was not something Sonic was used to. That, companied with the fact that he was still a bit frazzled from his dip in the pool, made him miss. Instead of teleporting into the workshop kitchen, like he wanted to, he and his past-self landed in the snow outside. After much surprised screaming and shouting, the older Tails ran outside to help the frustrated hedgehogs out of a snow drift. It took some doing (the older Sonic practically had to be carried all the way) but eventually they all got inside again. Soon, the two hedgehogs were curled up next to the fireplace, cocooned in blankets.

"So, explain something to me," Tails said, re-wrapping Sonic's chest. "How exactly did you miss? You're usually pretty good with Chaos Control, what happened?"

"I dunno! I just… I missed, okay? You try warping space-time four times in a day," the older hedgehog grunted. He shivered. Being submerged in water and then thrown into the snow certainly wasn't the best for his health. "Man, I had better not be getting sick… I tried saving the day once with a cold. I could barely run in a straight line, and jumping was just ridiculous. I don't like being sick, Tails!"

"I know you don't, you complain about it every time you _do_ get sick."

"What am I supposed to do, just sit there and suffer in silence?"

"I would pay to see that. Good money, too." Tails finished tying the bandages, and made sure they were nice and tight. "If you're going to keep whining about it, I can check your temperature and give you some cold medicine."

"I don't know which sounds worse, medicine or your unusually high levels of sass."

"Okay, medicine it is then." Tails got up with a sly grin on his face and left to go get some from the medicine cabinet. Sonic's younger self couldn't help but giggle.

"I don't know dude, I don't feel sick at all. You sure it's not because you're just old?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"Don't forget, I was dripping wet when we landed in that snow!" the older one said. He sneezed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He pouted. "It's got nothing to do with age."

Little Sonic simply shrugged and turned to face the fire. Just the fact that his older-self was on the defensive was enough of a victory for him. He didn't need to rub it in the guy's face. "Still… you're not exactly the most healthy guy around right now, you have to admit."

"I know, I know. This is harder than I thought it would be. If I had just paid closer attention when fighting that first monster…"

"Nothing you can do about it now. So unless someone randomly drops in and decides to handle the hero-ing, we've just got to keep trying to get the Emeralds by ourselves."

Tails came back into the room then, holding a thermometer and a bottle of medicine. He plopped down next to the older Sonic and stuck the thermometer in his mouth. "Just to make sure you're not REALLY sick," the fox reasoned, crossing his legs pretzel-style. After a minute, he pulled the thermometer out of Sonic's mouth and checked its reading. "Hmm... Your temperature is a little lower than it should be."

"Is that bad?" the hedgehog said, somewhat nervously.

"It means you have hypothermia."

"Hypothermia?!"

"Yep. Looks pretty mild though, you should be back to normal again once you warm up a bit. Maybe you should grab a hot water bottle or something, or else you might be shivering and confused for a few hours." The fox stood up and placed the bottle of medicine on the coffee table.

"What, you won't be a dear and grab a hot water-thingy for your sick older bro?" Sonic asked innocently. He shivered a little harder to really sell it.

"You'll be fine, you big baby," Tails smiled. He reached into Sonic's quills and pulled out the Chaos Emerald that he had obtained in Apotos.

"H-hey! Personal space there, buddy!" the hedgehog exclaimed. Tails merely tossed the Emerald in his hand nonchalantly.

"Sorry, I need it! My Emerald-tracking algorithms always work better when I have an actual Emerald to work with. Lil' T's helping me set up the program downstairs in the lab."

"So _that's_ where he is," the younger Sonic interjected. "I was wondering what happened to him. Way too quiet around this place, so I figured he was tinkering with something _somewhere."_

Tails nodded. "Yup. He's getting the hang of all my tech really quick, which is great. I know it's still kind of early in the game to be saying this, but I'll need all the help I can get. If one of us can hang around here to track more Emeralds, the other one can go out and collect them. Anyways, I'd better get this downstairs pronto." He held up the red gem he held in his hand. He then turned on his heel and headed towards the basement stairs.

_'Man, I never thought I'd be thinking this, but Tails has got a point with us needing help. As much as I enjoy going solo- or double, in this case- two Sonics might not be enough to get all the Emeralds in time. Especially not at the pace things are going right now.'_ He sighed. But what was he going to do? Knuckles couldn't land AngelIsland with the Mystic Ruins in a mess, Amy was helping out the situation in Station Square, and none of his other friends were available, either. Where in the world was he going to get help from?

Wait. That was it. Just because he wouldn't be able to find help in this world, didn't mean there weren't others he could call upon. Heck, he had just gotten a visit from a Zone Cop two days ago.

"You know what I think?" he said, snapping his past self out of a fire-staring trance. "I think I know someone who might be able to lend us a hand."

"Really?" the younger hedgehog's eyes widened. "Who?"

"An old friend of mine… Who is probably on his lunch break right now, if that clock is anything to go by," he said, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was about one in the afternoon. "Whatever, I'll see if I can call him up in a little bit. In the meantime, where the heck is that hot water bottle…? I'm freezing!" He quickly got to his feet, taking his blankets with him, and ran around the house looking for sweet warm relief.

ooo

A few hours had passed, and after spending some quality time with a hot water bottle and the radiator, Sonic was feeling much better. He sat alone in the kitchen, holding a single piece of paper. On it read the words, "Yo, Zonic, got a minute?" He tapped his foot impatiently, holding the paper up to seemingly no one. He had been waiting like that for nearly twenty minutes now, and he was getting bored. But, even though he didn't like admitting it, two Sonics probably wouldn't be enough to save the world. Not this time. None of his regular teammates were available at the moment, what with time falling apart and everything. So, he was left to gather help from a less than likely source.

The younger incarnation of Sonic wandered into the room from the living room. He walked over to the fridge, pulled it open, and grabbed a can of soda out of it. He closed the door with his foot and popped the top on his beverage, the can opening with a sharp hiss. He took a long gulp from the soda and wiped his mouth with the back of his glove. The small hedgehog glanced at his older self and the sheet of paper he was holding.

"Um, what are you doing?" he asked, swirling the carbonated drink around in his hand.

"Trying to contact that old friend of mine I was talking about," the taller, bluer one said, as if what he was doing was completely normal. His past self cleared his throat.

"You could try the phone, you know. Unless this friend of yours can be reached through pure willpower and a sheet of paper."

"Haha, no," the older Sonic laughed. "He's watching though, I know it. He's always watching. Sort of creepy, I know, but it's his job."

This response only served to confuse his young self. "What, like a guardian angel or something? Don't tell me you believe in that crud."

"Eh, kind of. It's hard to explain. He's not any sort of mystical, all-powerful being, I can tell you that."

Little-Sonic raised an eyeridge and took a sip of his soda. He placed the drink on the counter and looked at the poorly-made sign his future-self was holding. The writing was hastily scribbled with crayon, and it looked like it was done on the back of an old printout of a chili dog recipe. "Zonic?" he said incredulously. "Sounds like a silly character one of your fangirls came up with."

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that." The two Sonics spun their heads around to see that a round, orange portal had just opened up in the kitchen. Inside said portal was someone around the height of the older Sonic, wearing high-tech armor and a frown on his face. The rest of his head was obscured by a helmet with an opaque visor. Most noticeable about him, however, was that he was standing _sideways._

"Hey, Z! There you are. I've been waiting for you to show up," the elder Sonic said, standing up out of his chair and placing his sign down on the table.

"What the-!" his past self said, taking up a fighting stance. "Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?!"

The one in the portal crossed his arms over his chest. "You had quite the mouth on you when you were younger, Prime," he said, looking at the older hedgehog. Sonic smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, well! I learned to cool off on the language, Tails started picking up on it after a while." He slapped his younger self on the back a little harder than he normally would have, making sure his point got across. "Don't worry about him, Lil' Me, he's the friend I was telling you about."

"Your friend is a sideways guy in a goofy uniform?"

"Hey, be nice."

"_Ahem_," Zonic cleared his throat noisily. "I do have other things to do, you know, so if you could tell me why I'm here...?"

"Oh! Right," the elder Sonic said. "I had to talk to you about something."

"So, get over here and we'll talk. I'm not having a trans-dimensional conversation like this, it'll drain the power core in my belt." He tapped a finger on his belt buckle, which was the device that opened up the portal in the first place.

"What? Oh, fine, whatever," Sonic sighed. "You're so difficult sometimes... Lil' Me, keep an eye on the Tailses, alright? I'll be back soon."

"But- where are you even going? Sonic!" the twelve-year-old argued, glancing between his future-self and the mysterious sideways 'Zonic.'

"Calm down, I'll just be 90 degrees from here. See ya!" He offered his younger incarnation a quick wave goodbye before jumping through the portal. The gateway closed up after him, leaving the child all alone in the kitchen, dumbfounded.

"... _What does 90 degrees from here even supposed to mean?!"_ he shouted. He knew he wouldn't be getting an answer to that question anytime soon, but he still had to ask it. He pouted and picked up his soda, taking a sip from it. Being stuck in the future was really starting to grate on his nerves; constantly being kept in the dark about everything was really annoying sometimes.

ooo

90 degrees away, the older version of this hedgehog was trying to get used to the No Zone's sideways gravity. It was oddly fascinating to him; how he stayed oriented to his own world's gravity and how this world seemed to be turned in its side. He was floating/standing sideways in mid-air, as Zonic did whenever he was in Sonic's world. While Sonic was taking all of this in, the No-Zoner flipped up the visor on his helmet, revealing his previously-hidden face. He sat down in the office chair of his monitoring station, a room filled with hundreds of television screens- each one with the live image of an alternate version of Sonic on it. He crossed his legs as he glanced up at his Prime Zone counterpart. "So, what did you want to talk to me about, Sonic?" he asked calmly.

"Well, we've got a teensey little problem, not really a huge deal, but I figured, 'hey, maybe I should let my old pal Zonic know what's going with all these time shenanigans.' That's all, nothing potentially catastrophic or anything," Sonic said with a shrug. Zonic sighed.

"The fabric of space-time is falling apart, isn't it?"

"It's crumbling faster than a cookie in the hands of a two-year-old. How'd you know?"

"Maybe you've forgotten," the Zone Cop said, lacing his fingers together, "but I see practically everything that goes on in the multiverse that concerns you and our other-selves. And let me tell you, the Prime Zone monitor has certainly been an interesting watch these past few days. Windy Valley and the capitol city of Apotos frozen in time, Station Square and the Mystic Ruins being blasted with a snowstorm, and that's only the stuff _you've_ picked up on."

"You said it, my world is a mess. That's why I could use your help."

"And what exactly do you think I can do to help out?" Zonic asked, standing up now. "I told you before, time travel isn't exactly my thing, so there's nothing I can directly do to fix this. We've already put all other Zones in lockdown, so this whole situation stays contained. There's nothing else I can do."

"Not exactly!" Sonic said, wagging his finger. "Tails and I figure we can fix time if we gather all seven Chaos Emeralds. Normally, I could round them all up, no problem. But we're having a tricky time tracking the things down, and I'm... not really at a hundred percent right now." He wrapped an arm around his chest, drawing attention to the bandages that were covering his entire torso. "Of course, the guys are all either busy trying to help people out with time stopping everywhere, or I can't get a hold of them. Which is why I'm asking for some trans-dimensional assistance."

Zonic closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. "Okay, so I'm guessing you want to recruit a bunch of people from all different dimensions, and use my Zone Portals to get to the Emeralds quickly? Is that it?"

"A pretty good plan, right?" Sonic smiled, flashing his alternate-self a thumbs up. "So, what do you say, Z-man? Gonna lend a hand?"

"I'm going to have to say no."

"Alright, cool! Wel- wait, did you just say no?" Sonic said, doing a double take.

"I already told you, I can't just pull random Sonics out of their Zones willy-nilly, not without putting countless worlds in danger. The only reason No Zone is still connected to Mobius Prime is so that we can closely monitor the situation," the No-Zoner explained, as if it were first grade logic. Sonic sighed and ran his hand through his quills.

"Okay then, so recruiting from other Zones is a no-go. Can you still help us out with the portals, at least? I mean, I can use Chaos Control to get around the planet, but it's starting to take its toll on me."

Zonic thought about it for a moment, absentmindedly fingering the belt at his waist. "I'll... see what I can do. The Chaos Emeralds have a nasty habit of interfering with where Zone Portals open up, so I won't be able to land you too close to them. But I'll do what I can."

"Hey, that works just fine with me. Thanks a lot dude, I owe you one."

"Well, considering all the times you've helped out the Zone Cops, it's probably the least I can do, huh?"

"You said it," Sonic chuckled. He could feel an idea hatching in his brain. "Hey… Correct me if I'm wrong, but… You're a Sonic, technically, and your Zone isn't locked down like the others are."

"You want me to help out with your Emerald hunt, Prime? In case you haven't noticed, I kind of have a job to do."

"And that job's protecting the multiverse, right? Well, what better way to do that then to help put a stop to the problem yourself?"

"It's not that I don't want to help," Zonic said, giving him an incredulous look. "I'm better at hunting down lawbreakers than mystical gems."

"Pretty lame excuse for a guy who's supposed to be all business," Sonic said with a smirk.

Something in the Zone cop's head ticked. "Excuse?" he said, not making eye contact with his other self. "You want me to give you an excuse, Sonic?" His voiced raised. "Well, how's this for an excuse: _I'm not fast_. I can't run like you, or any other Sonic out there. Okay? I'm a regular old slowpoke. Why do you think I took this gig in the first place, huh? You can't do much to protect people from inter-dimensional creeps if you're a civilian with no special abilities whatsoever."

Sonic fell silent. This was not what he was expecting from this visit. He struggled to wrap his head around what he had just heard. "You mean, you really can't…" He licked his lips, his mouth dry. "Dude, I had no idea, honestly." He couldn't believe it. Zonic the Zone Cop, one of the best blue hedgehogs out there, couldn't run_. 'Come to think of it, I've only seen the guy in action a handful of times, and he would usually stick to using his gadgets or going hand-to-hand… Well, I guess this explains why he was always calling me up to help protect other zones,' _Sonic thought.

Zonic clenched his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. He took a deep breath and sat down in his chair, elbows resting on his knees.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. Not really professional of me."

"Heh, you honestly think I care about that?" Sonic smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Professionalism, not being fast, whatever. You still have skills, man. Mad skills! I mean, aren't you supposed to be the Zone Cops' star officer or somethin'?"

The cop couldn't help but crack a grin at that. "I may have been called that once or twice, yeah." He shook his head and sighed. "I don't know, Sonic. This isn't exactly my usual gig. Even if I come with you- and that is still an if, by the way- I don't think I'll be enough to get the job done with room to spare. Especially considering how unstable your world is right now."

"Well then, what do you suggest we do, officer? No offense, but you're not exactly the first person I've asked for assistance. I'm running out of folks to get in touch with," Sonic asked, hands on his hips. The No-Zoner exhaled through pursed lips and sat back in his chair. He sat there quietly for a beat, thinking.

"My men aren't going to be much help. They're all scrambling just to enforce the lockdown and keep this mess contained. So unless we recruit the prisoners in the Zone Jail for help, I don't have a clue who to go to," he joked.

Sonic smirked and gave a short laugh. "The Zone Jail, eh? The one person I know in that joint… Probably one of the last people I'd like to work with, ever."

"It's not like you guys haven't worked together before."

"Yeah, I believe those were called 'quick truces to take down the robots that want us both dead so we can keep fighting uninterrupted.' Hardly an alliance, wouldn't you say?"

"I don't like him either. Don't forget, he tried to destroy what was left of ZoneCity. I'm just saying, he's an option."

"He's in _prison,_ Z. And he should stay there, locked up where he can't hurt anybody." Sonic shook his head and looked at the monitors covering the wall. Each screen showed an alternate version of him- hey, he could see himself in Zonic's office on one of the monitors. Freaky. The screen directly underneath his own showed a familiar, green hedgehog with short quills and a suspicious orange outfit. He was sitting on the edge of a bed- well, what was left of the bed, anyway. It looked like he didn't have a mattress of his own, just a bunch of springs to sleep on. He looked pretty miserable.

Zonic got up out of his chair and stood next to Sonic. "Well, if you want help, you're going to have to be openminded about where it comes from," he said, also looking at the screen with the imprisoned hedgehog. "Even if it comes from Scourge."

Sonic didn't say anything, but narrowed his eyes and frowned. It was true, he shouldn't discriminate when it came to getting help, especially when potentially the whole multiverse was at stake. Not to mention, Scourge was incredibly powerful- as fast as Sonic himself was (although the blue hedgehog would never admit it) and packed an even harder punch. Having him on the team would make the mission a breeze.

But at the same time, Scourge was completely untrustworthy. He turned on every person he ever allied himself with, if his allies didn't mutiny against him first. He had conquered his planet, tried to do the same with Sonic's own, and when that didn't work, he went after the No Zone, trying to bring the perpendicular world down with him. It had taken some serious hard work to get the guy in jail and have him stay there. He'd been in there for a year already, and if it were up to Sonic, he'd stay there for the rest of his life.

"Are you seriously suggesting we let him out? Knowing him he'll just try and conquer my planet all over again, and I'm definitely not going to put up with that a second time," Sonic said. His No-Zone self shrugged noncommittally.

"It's up to you. You never know, he might cooperate."

"You're the one who can see what he's up to. You tell me if he'll cooperate."

"Well, take a look for yourself. Does he look like much of a bad guy in there?" Zonic said, turning around. He picked up a mug off of his desk and took a sip of hot coffee.

"Zonic, _Eggman_ would look innocent rotting in a place like that."

"No, he'd be busy scheming an escape plan. I've been looking in on ol' Green every once in a while, and he hasn't been up to much. Just getting beaten up a lot."

"I'd love to see that," Sonic laughed. He looked up at the screen again. Scourge was being pulled from his cell and forced to walk down a long hallway with loads of other inmates. "Hey, what's going on?"

Zonic glanced up. "Hm? Oh, they must be taking them down to the rec yard. Can't keep them locked up all day, you know."

Sonic nodded and turned back to the screen. The fact that Scourge had to be removed from his cell by guards was curious, at least. It looked like the green hog didn't want to go anywhere, just wanted to stay in his cell and be all alone. Sulking in his room? That didn't seem like Scourge's style at all. Were things really that bad in the Zone Jail that he'd been changed that much?

"Maybe I'll consider asking him to help out," Sonic muttered quietly. "I'll have to talk to him first, though. I don't need him playing us like fools just so he can escape."

"I hear you. He's not stepping a foot out of that place unless we're positive he's not going to run off at the first opportunity," the Zone Cop said, taking another swig of coffee. "You want to go pay him a visit? You're already here, after all."

Sonic frowned. He was really against the idea of doing anything that would help his evil self, but if Scourge could really help...

"Meh, why not? The worst he can do is say no."

ooo

Ten minutes later, they were all ready to leave. Zonic had managed to convince Lieutenant Zector to handle monitor duty until he got back, and had also gotten a spatial stabilizer for Sonic. The device was silver and shaped like a bracelet, so it could easily slide onto the wrist. It kept whoever was wearing it oriented in the zone they were currently in; whether it be a Prime-Zoner in the No Zone or a No-Zoner in the Prime Zone.

"Alright Prime. Teleporting will be faster, since we're travelling within the same Zone. You ever teleported before?" Zonic asked, inspecting his belt to make sure its teleporting device was working. Sonic nodded with a cocky grin.

"Totally. I teleported, like, five times this morning using the Chaos Emeralds."

"Great, then you know the drill. I assume you won't throw up, so let's get this show on the road already."

Sonic's eyes widened as his counterpart grabbed his wrist. Zonic pressed the button on the center of his belt buckle just as Sonic sputtered, "Wait, throw up?!"

But it was too late. The Mobian felt like he as being pixilated, breaking apart into millions upon millions of tiny pieces and shooting off towards the direction of the prison of what must have been close to the speed of light. He shot through walls, through people, open air, cities, and mountains, traveling in a single straight line. He had never gone so fast in his entire life, not even as Super Sonic. The ride was over almost as soon as it began, though, and he could feel his molecules rearranging themselves and falling back into their rightful places. He rapidly rematerialized, Zonic standing at his side just like before they left. Once he was all back in one piece, he immediately doubled over and fell to his knees. He felt awful, like his stomach had reformed upside-down and his guts were all inside-out. He puked. He wasn't able to hold his lunch after that wild ride. Zonic took a step back, a little bit grossed out.

Once Sonic was done purging his insides, he wiped his mouth with the back of his glove and sat down, breathing hard. He spat a couple of times, trying to get the taste of bile out of his mouth. "The hell, man?" he coughed. "I thought that'd be like Chaos Control, not a freaking Tilt-a-Whirl. Urp…!" He lurched forward and vomited again.

"Hey, I never used Chaos Control before. How was I supposed to know it was different?" Zonic asked, throwing his hands up defensively. "Just be glad you're rightside-up. Throwing up sideways is NOT a pleasant experience."

"Oh, gross, TMI dude," Sonic moaned. He climbed to his feet. His legs were shaking, so he grabbed onto a railing next to him help himself stand up. "So where are we? Is this Zone Jail?"

They were standing outside the prison, several hundred feet up on a suspended metal platform. The whole prison complex seemed to be floating in mid-air, making it practically impossible to escape. The rec yard made up the surface of the jail- the whole surface. The place must've had its own artificial gravity, because the complex was shaped like an octagonal prism and had walkways facing in all directions.

"Yep. Welcome to the Zone Jail, home to some of the multiverse's worst criminals. The guys in Scourge's cellblock should be in the rec yard right now," Zonic said, looking at the main building.

"So all we have to do is find Scourge and get him to talk to us. And not get murdered by prisoners."

"And convince the Warden to let Scourge out of here if he agrees to help."

"And that, too." Sonic nodded and looked over the rec yard. There were people everywhere; some playing basketball, some lifting weights, some just walking around and talking. Zonic sighed and flipped down the visor of his helmet.

"Okay, you see if you can get a hold of Scourge, maybe ask a guard to go and grab him or something so you don't get creamed by all the bad guys in there. Even though you two hate each other, I think he'll be more receptive if you try and talk to him. I'm going to try and convince the Warden to release his prized prisoner a bit early."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Alright then. Oh, wait, you might want to take this." Zonic pulled a small card out of his pocket and handed it over. It was made out of red plastic, and looked almost like a credit card. "The guards are less likely to bug you if you show 'em that. In theory, me giving this to you gives you all the access to this place that I have, but since we'll be dealing with Scourge, you'll just have to play it by ear. Good luck, Sonic," Zonic said. He turned and jogged down the pathway, turning through a door and vanishing into the building.

_'So that really is as fast as he can run...'_ Sonic thought, a tinge of sadness in his inner voice. _'Oh well, there's not much I can really do about it. I need to focus on finding Scourge... Man, I can't believe I'm actually doing this.'_ He took off, going in the opposite direction that his No Zone self went, trying to find some way to get down to the rec yard. Or at very least, a guard who could get Scourge out of there so Sonic could talk to him. What was he even going to say? He had tried to convince Scourge to switch sides in the past, and nothing had worked. It wasn't like the guy didn't have the potential to be a good guy- he and Sonic were incredibly similar, even though neither of them really liked to admit it. He had the capacity for kindness, but his ego usually got in the way of that. Hopefully his time in prison had given him a reality check.

"Hey, you!" shouted a voice from behind him. Sonic spun around to see a guard running towards him, laser pistol aimed at his chest. "You're not authorized to be up here! Put your hands up!"

"Yo, calm down! I'm cool to be here!" Sonic said, hands in the air. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, y'know, the Prime one? Zonic brought me here, I'm with him!"

"The Captain brought you?" the guard asked warily.

"Sure did. I can show you where I vomited because of the stupid teleporting belts you guys have."

"Err, that won't be necessary," the guard said, trying to hide his disgust. "So, if Captain Zonic brought you, where is he?"

"Ran off to go find the Warden, had to ask him about something. I tagged along because I need to have a chat with Scourge."

"Sorry Sir, but unless I see some ID or talk to the Captain myself, the only one you're going to have a chat with is the recipient of your one phone call."

"Hey, come on! I'm not causing any trouble, am I?" Sonic asked with a cocky smirk plastered on his face. He knew that he could easily show the guy the card that Zonic gave him, but messing with him was too much fun. The guard didn't seem to be having any of his sass, and his face grew more serious and he reached for the handcuffs hooked to the back of his belt. He was coming close to slapping them around the hedgehog's wrists when something else caught his eye.

"What the?" He looked over the side of the walkway into the rec yard. Because of how No Zone's gravity worked, all of the inmates were standing sideways in comparison to he other Zone Cops, even with the artificial gravity in place. No Zone physics were a difficult thing to grasp, and tended to make more sense the less you thought about them.

What had caught the guard's eye was the sight of a fight breaking out in the yard. At least five or six convicts were gathered around one other in the middle, beating him down into the ground. A small crowd of others was crowded around, laughing, cheering, and clamoring for a chance to get in on the action as well. The others in the yard weren't participating, but almost all of them were watching, and none of them were helping the guy in the middle of it all.

The guard fired warning shots into the air with his pistol before turning it towards the group of inmates. "Oi, knock it off down there!" He shouted loudly. "Or do I have to send you all to solitary?!" The threat of solitary confinement made a couple people in the crowd back off, but not the majority.

Sonic frowned. He could feel his protective instincts kick in. The exact same instincts that told him to protect his home of Green Hill, along with the rest of South Island, from Robotnik's first attack; the same instincts that told him to rescue Tails all those years ago from the bullies in Emerald Hill. Sonic put a foot on top of the railing on the side of the walkway and used it as a springboard to jump off of. He leapt into the air, removing his spatial stabilizer mid-jump. He fell towards the rec yard face-first, and quickly corrected his orientation. He landed softly on his feet about three yards away from the fight.

"Yo!" He called out, his arms crossed and his foot tapping wildly. "The dude with the gun said to cut it out. Maybe you ought to listen!"

Some of the fighters turned to look at the hedgehog that was intruding on their fun. "And what if we don't?" One of them, a huge brown bear, asked, cracking his knuckles as he started to walk over. A couple of the others followed his lead, smiling menacingly. Sonic's frown turned to a small smirk.

"Well then, you'll have to answer to me." Suddenly, in a flash of blue, he was gone. The prisoners were starting to think they should've just kept to their one target, instead of picking a fight with this newcomer. Sonic's feet came to a stop right behind the bear. He stood on his tiptoes and tapped the bear on his left shoulder, and then quickly sidestepped to the right. The bear turned around, confused when he couldn't find the one that poked him. He kept turning until he was looking right at Sonic, who smiled up at him as if he had done nothing wrong. The bear growled, leaning back to throw a punch right at the hero's head. The hedgehog quickly ducked under his legs as he let his fist fly. The prisoner now off-balance, Sonic gave him a swift kick in the back, sending him toppling forward onto his face.

With the bear taken down, the rest of the prisoners who were with him decided it was high time to attack. The group of about ten or so charged Sonic head-on, which was a poor plan of attack in retrospect. The green-eyed hedgehog jumped over the first few of them, and brought the heel of his sneaker down on the head of a dumbfounded skunk. The aggressor's face contacted the ground a split second later. Sonic used his momentum from his previous jump to frontflip off the skunk's noggin and land back on the floor- right in the middle of the inmates who wanted his head.

They stood that way for a heartbeat, letting the Mobian take in his current situation. It didn't last long, though. The first one to make their move was a tiger, a female, who ran at him from behind. Her claws were bared, her sharp teeth gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Sonic saw an attack from behind coming from a mile away. He ducked to the side and stuck his leg out right as the tigress was about to swipe a couple of quills right off his head. He swung his leg back in a sweeping motion, knocking her feet right out from under her. Thanks to her speed and forward momentum, she tripped and went flying into another inmate, a wolf, both of them crashing to the ground. Sonic grimaced. He wasn't a fan of hurting girls, but she asked for it. He didn't have much time to concern himself with his level of chivalry though, as a maddened Cobra was the next one to try something on him. This one seemed to be smarter than the others: rather than aiming for Sonic's head, this one went for the legs, something the hedgehog would be powerless without. Unfortunately for the snake, the hero wasn't about to let him get a lucky shot in and disable his legs. Sonic swung his legs out from under him and spun them around, supporting himself with his arms. His breakdance style of fighting proved effective, as the Cobra was blasted away, forcefully exiting the quickly shrinking circle of inmates.

The remaining prisoners were done taking Sonic on one at a time. Before he had even recovered from his totally sick dance move, three of them attacked him all at once. One of them, a rhino, grabbed his swinging leg mid-air as it started to slow down. The other two, a warthog and a large purple cat that looked remarkably like Big, grabbed Sonic's other leg and his arms, respectively. They held the hedgehog up in the air, looking like they were getting ready to rim him limb from limb all at once. Sonic gulped. This was going to be a tough pickle to get out of. Of course, he had a plan of action stored away incase anything like this ever happened, although he had hoped that when he tried it out for the first time, it would be on enemies that weren't as big as these lugs.

Focusing on all the strength in his legs and abdominals, Sonic swung his legs upward, taking the rhino and the warthog with them. The two sailed over his head and landed on Big's doppelganger, all three crashing to the ground and releasing their grips on the hedgehog's limbs. Sonic quickly got to his feet. He really should haves stretched before doing that, but oh well. It was a good thing his legs were powerful enough to carry him faster than the speed of sound, or else that never would have worked. He glanced around at the remaining inmates that weren't flat on their backs/faces. There were only four left, and they were starting to look like they were really regretting the decision to storm the one-hedgehog army. None of them were making a move, each waiting for another to attack first. Sonic shrugged with one shoulder. It looked like he would have to finish this up. He curled up into a ball and started spinning rapidly in place, revving up for a spindash. He shot at an angle towards one of the four, not even hitting him but the force of the wind that followed being enough to knock him onto his tail. Sonic was right on target with the last three, knocking each of their legs out from under them in quick succession.

In about two minutes, Sonic had taken down ten Zone Jail inmates, who were some of the worst scum in the universe. He barely even broke a sweat.

He looked up to see everyone in the rec yard staring at him, wide-eyed and open mouthed. Even some of he guards were staring at him in awe. He rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. "Alright, there's nothing to see here, folks! Go on, go back to your regularly scheduled programs," he said loudly, dismissing all the stares with a wave of his hand. Everyone awkwardly and slowly turned their gazes elsewhere, having to settle for whispering about what had just happened amongst themselves. Sonic looked down at the trembling inmates at his feet, still lying on the ground. "BOO," he shouted, causing the bear in front of him to yelp and scamper off, tail between his legs. The others followed suit, grumbling and cursing off the blue one for ruining their fun. The hedgehog shoo'd away the few stragglers that were left over from the original beating, who had decided to continue beating on their original target rather than take Sonic on. Once the scene was clear, Sonic huffed.

"Well, that was a nice change of pace. Fighting monsters all the time gets pretty boring," he yawned. He looked down at the prisoner who was getting wailed on before, who was still lying face-down on the ground. "Hey dude, you alright?" he asked. The bullied inmate was green- the kind of green that looked like it was duller than it was supposed to be- and sported short, choppy quills swooping off the back of his head. His orange jumpsuit had patches all over it, and had two holes in the back where a pair of spines were jutting through. He appeared to be the same height as Sonic, and sported a pair of familiar-looking black and green boots on his feet. Sonic's eyes widened. There was no way.

"Wait... Scourge?"

* * *

**Notes: **Well, now we know what Scourge has been doing this whole time! Getting beat up. Swell. But will he agree to team up with Sonic (you can probably guess)? Will he actually become a sort of not-terrible person eventually (you can guess this too)? And what do you mean, Zonic's not fast (you might be able to guess this but you won't get all the details)? Most of these questions will be answered next time!

P.S. I just got Sonic Lost World for the Wii U and it is _great. _It's super fun, and even though I do have a problem with it here and there *coughcoughimissthegoodolddayswhenyoudidn'thavetol ockontoanythingtohomingattackcough* it's super fun and the characterization is beautiful. This feels like the first game where Sonic acts like Sonic and Tails acts like Tails (except for that one scene, if you've played it you know what I'm talkin' about) and they just goof off and make fun of Eggman together and... yeah I like it a lot. I'm going to post this, do my history homework, and then go play some more. Okay, mini-review over. See you next week, folks!

Leave a review and I'll be your bestest friend!


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